Interview Questions – what should be asked?

Question

Tomorrow I am interviewing a person for the Job as Software developer. What questions should I ask him?

Should I ask him to write some sample code ?

Answer 1

As a suggeston, make up a developer interview doc. that contains your set of questions. For each question allow

• a section to write their responses,
• a section containing crib notes to remind you of the answer, or points that should be covered in their answer, and
• a section to score their answer.

By building up such a document you will:

• have a permanent record of the questions you want to ask which will be refined over time.
• be comparing different interviewees(?) on a like for like basis,
• have a record of the interview should the interviewee question any decision on your part.

HTH

cheers,

Rob

Answer 2

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000226.html

These are also good. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001042.html

Answer 3

Here's a few generic ones:

-What would you like to do?

-Why are you leaving your current job?

-What motivates you?

-What are your strengths? Weaknesses?

-What are the really important aspects of software development?

-If given a new programming problem, what is your first step in producing code?

-What is Object Oriented Design?

-What are the essential elements of OO programming?

-Describe an interesting class you have designed.

-OOD Methodology?

-What books have you read on software design that were good? Blogs? Websites? Magazines? Project Management software?

-What are some favorite web sites for technical information?

-What are some influential books you've read?

-Why do projects fail?

-What are important aspects of GUI design?

-What do you like about your current job? What don't you like?

-How would you rate your current management?

-Would you like to be the team leader or team member?

-What is your ideal team size?

Answer 4

Joel Spolsky has a splendid article on this topic.

Answer 5

Ask her to tell about previous projects she worked on. Ask her what role she had in the project. Was she active or passive in the projectteam?

What did she do when things went wrong? (The ones you want tell you how they helped to finish the project. The ones you don't want tell you that things went wrong because of someone else).

Did her previous projects succeed? Why/why not?

Ask her if she knows the things she needs to know for her job. Keep asking further and find out at which detailed level the knowledge stops.

Answer 6

Yes, you should absolutely ask him to write code during the interview. You'll be amazed how many otherwise impressive candidates will do poorly when it comes time to actually program. And you want to find this out during the interview, not after you've hired him.

The best interview coding questions can be answered relatively easily by good candidates, yet consistently expose poor candidates' weaknesses. As you gain more interviewing experience, you'll learn which questions seem to work best against that criteria.

Also, choose a problem you know well so you can judge it fairly. Don't focus soley on the correctness of the code. Engage in dialog with the candidate and find out how he approaches the problem. You learn so many important details watching someone work through a real coding problem that won't surface through other interviewing techniques.

Answer 7

One excellent question to ask is "What sort of computer(s) do you have at home?"

Their answer will give you an amazing amount of insight into their technical skills--people who built their own machine vs. "I don't know, I think it's a Dell". It's a kind of personal question, and certainly shouldn't be your most important question, but it's a good one to throw in there.

Answer 8

As Joel's article says, let the candidate speak for themselves for a few minutes. I usually find it easy to weed out candidates with the information they willingly provide. One thing I found Joel's article is missing is how to interview candidates over a telephone. I have found that always a tricky proposition.

First of all, you would not know if you are talking to the candidate himself or herself and not his / her brilliant brother / sister ;)

Secondly, you would also typically be expected to evaluate his / her problem solving skills to a certain measure. I do this with a teaser usually - sometimes the candidates just get miffed with such questions making my job much easier!

Also, one hour interviews over phone tend to be too long.

Fortunately, since such telephonic interviews are only first round filters, you could ask generic enough questions to see the breadth of candidate's knowledge. Then check their 'approach' to teaser problems. If you think they are good enough, go for a face-to-face interview.