What's a good non-programming interview question when hiring a programmer?

Posted by Kip on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Kip
Published on 2008-10-01T12:37:21Z Indexed on 2010/06/02 12:03 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 178

Filed under:

subjective

|

career-development

|

interview-questions

|

offtopic

What is a good non-programming question to ask a candidate during a job interview?

I'll post my two favorites below, but I'd like to hear others.

Clarification: By "non-programming," I mean you are not asking them to solve a problem by writing or describing code.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about subjective

Scoring/analysis of Subjective testing for skills assessment

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I am lucky in the sense that I have been given the opportunity to be a 'Technical Troubleshooter' for our offshore development team. While I am confident and capable of dealing with most issues, I have come across something that I am not. Based on initial discussions with various team members both… >>> More
Best Practise/Subjective: Implement a finite state automaton in OOP

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi guys, I am thinking about implementing a programm with finite state automaton in an OOP language like Java or C++. What would you think is the best way to implement this with a manageable amount of available states, regarding to good software design? Is it good to implement for each state an… >>> More
Subjective question...would you use the Action delegate to avoid duplication of code?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello, I just asked a question that helps about using generics (or polymorphism) to avoid duplication of code. I am really trying to follow the DRY principle. So I just ran into the following code... Sub OutputDataToExcel() OutputLine("Output DataBlocks", 1) OutputDataBlocks() … >>> More
"Best" language /architecture for browser-based app with ODBC and sockets? (subjective)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Sorry to ask a subjective question, but I would welcome some advice. I am an experienced programmer of embedded s/w, but haven't done much network programming, although I have done a fair bit of hobbyist PHP. Anyway, I have to develop what is probably a fairly general type of app, as shown in this… >>> More
The best terminal emulator for a heavy terminal user?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I spend a lot of time at the command-line during the workday and at home too since I run Ubuntu exclusively. I've been using the default gnome terminal but I've reached a point where I'd really like to get my terminal tricked out so that my common tasks are as easy as possible. Specifically, I find… >>> More

Related posts about career-development

Advise on career development [closed]

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I am an amateur programmer working at a start-up. I didn't try coding at college. I've been working for 2 months now on web development. I'm satisfied with my progress. My project will go live soon. I work on front-end and my colleague integrates my work in his. So I decided to learn back-end technologies… >>> More
Recommendations for books on career development

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
For a programmer that wishes to udnerstand principles of economics/how money flows, the basic principles of money exchanging hands..what are some good books/magazines/publications/journals? Please assume a beginner level willing to learn fast and hard. The objective is to understand why some jobs… >>> More
career development: build release engineer or .net developer [closed]

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I have been working as .net developer for many years. Recently I got two offers: Continue work as .net developer on a SAAS product. Job duty is to add new features and fix issues, similar to what i have been doing these years. Become a Software configuration management and build engineer, in charge… >>> More
book about psychology of decision and psychology of human

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I'm a unix developer and i want to make career in project/people management as first step. I think sometimes is better to have good communication skill and in general more human skill to make career more fast. Almost in Italy, a lot of people made career development more fast for his human skill… >>> More
Learn WinRT or Unity 3d?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I am not sure where to ask advices about career development, so I am sorry if I am wrong. My question is what is better for me to learn, Win 8 and metro style applications or try to focus on some 3d engine, like Unity 3d? On the one hand I`ve got enought experience in c# and programming for business… >>> More