Is there an industry standard programming assessment test?

Question

I am about to conduct some interviews for a new role at our company and would like to know if there is an industry standard assessment test or organisation that provides this. I recall writing an entry test a few years ago that had an acronym as a name, but I cannot remember what it was. Thanks.

Answer 1

Nope, every companies needs are different, and every developer is different.

edit

Sorry, early morning, here's a more useful answer

Your best bet when it comes to interviewing developers should (generally) include the following:

1. Make sure they can actually write code in the language you are hiring them for

   • You're not trying to test their ability to recall weird algorithms, but make sure they understand the basic concepts of programming (unless it's for a senior level developer, then you need to be asking some difficult questions).
   • Here's a good example of a very basic programming challenge Bizz Buzz (Also called Fizz Buzz)

2. Ask them to explain something of note that they have done. Usually a good way to open up an interviewee is ask them to describe something they did. What they did is not as important is how they went about doing it. This is the time to learn how they think through a problem.

3. Finally the standard question I've always gotten. "What do you do if somebody on your team isn't pulling their weight?"

All this being said, there isn't a standard way to interview developers, everybody comes from different backgrounds, and that's how you're going to get the best team.

Answer 2

There is no such test. If there were, everyone would just game that, and it would be even harder to find people who can program their way out of a wet paper bag.

Answer 3

A conclusive way to prove programming ability is yet to be found, but there are a few attempts at solutions out there, and quite a few people have written about it...

There's brainbench which gives technically difficult tests, but these can be beaten by a programmer who can type quickly.

Other people's experiences on hiring developers:

1. http://imranontech.com/2007/01/24/using-fizzbuzz-to-find-developers-who-grok-coding/
2. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/GuerrillaInterviewing3.html
3. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/02/why-cant-programmers-program.html#tp

The posts are pretty wordy so I'll try to summarise:

1. Make extensive use of telephone interviews (screening).
2. Make the candidate write some simple code during the interview while you watch. Apparently even otherwise impressive candidates fall down at the simplest of coding challenges.