I always hate it when, in an interview, I’m asked to solve a logic puzzle. Now Google is using math puzzles to recruit. These sorts of things seem good at identifying folks who might be good students, folks who are good at competing against others to solve toy problems. But a good developer has quite different skills. A good developer works with others to solve real problems. A knack for triage, good manners, writing skills and lots of other things are as important as logic skills.
When I interview I like to ask people to describe a problem they encountered and tell how they solved it–to tell a story. Or I describe to them a real problem I’m currently working on, and see how they might approach it. Not that I’m actually convinced this works much better. Hiring people I haven’t previously worked with still always feels like a lottery…
