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from the pi(x)=substr("3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208",1,x) dept.
Recently there was an article discussing how poorly today's Silicon Valley approaches the question of testing their information technology candidates' intelligence.
If you were a hiring manager, how would YOU test YOUR candidate's intelligence?
I was mulling this over recently, when, for unrelated reasons, I found myself researching algorithms to be used in calculating 'pi' (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Pi_algorithms).
As it so happens, there are currently 15 known algorithms for pi. At least one of the algorithms can be used to generate arbitrary digits of pi (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey–Borwein–Plouffe_formula), and that might be relevant. (I'm not a mathematician, or a programmer, as such - I'm a sysadmin - but even those who are will likely be surprised to learn that such a thing is possible. For more information, please see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spigot_algorithm.)
And so I would ask my candidate to pretend that he was responsible for designing a library of math functions, and to offer me an opinion on which algorithm should be implemented, in our hypothetical library of routines, to calculate 'pi'.
Some prior experience in programming is required - you have to have written your own functions. No programming languages are required. No coding. Not even pseudo-code! No right answers. No wrong answers. Just pure thought.
You don't need to be a programmer to take this test and succeed. You don't need to do anything on a whiteboard. You just need to be somewhat mathematically inclined ... somewhat literate ... and, a nerd.
A real nerd. Not one of these fake Silicon Valley nerds. You need to have books on your shelves. Not DVDs.
Points for asking what the library will be used for. The value 22/7 might work great for roughing out the roof of a gazebo. Not so good for calculating orbits!
Points for implementing multiple algorithms and letting the user decide for themselves.
No time limit, no pressure ... but I would want to hear back from my candidates, within a day or two, via email.
Compare my test to the puerile tests involving balls, and strings, and calculating 2^64 in your head, in real time, and ask yourself which of these methods REALLY exposes intelligence?
Now, you're in charge.
What would you do?
(Score: 2) by MrGuy on Friday November 02 2018, @02:55AM
No. No they're not. They don't even bill themselves as intelligence tests. They used to bill themselves as aptitude tests, but they're not really that either. They're achievement tests, in specific subjects (as the SAT's name now acknowledges)
Intelligence is innate. You can't teach someone to be more intelligent (at least, not by the definition used by IQ tests). But I 100% guarantee you that SAT prep classes work - it's a test that can't be gamed, but CAN be prepared for. And the specific things you need to do to prepare themselves for those tests have little to do with larger success in business (or college, for that matter).
And even if they could, IQ has very little correspondence with ability to succeed in any particular field, unless you write logic puzzles or solve rubik's cubes for a living. The ability to recognize a good idea, the ability to apply something that worked in the past to a current situation, the ability to see how to exploit or market an idea, the ability to identify a need and evaluate options to fill that need, the ability to work well with a team - all hugely important to succeed in business, none of which correspond terribly well to IQ.
The CEO is rarely the person with the highest IQ in the company. The manager is rarely "smarter" than the people they hire in the IQ sense.
And, by the way, what employers are out looking at "ways to measure IQ their own way?" I've never seen that in the wild, or, to the extent I've seen testing, it's never been a primary determination of employment. Job-related skills and experience are almost always the main concerns, along with interpersonal skills.
Where are you working that IQ is the be-all, end-all of deciding who gets a job?