17
Crost
3y

had to reject a junior candidate today. Couldn't really write an if else statement.

Always feels bad, I remember being mortified when I was at that level.

Comments
  • 3
    I gave him feedback to try and work on a few open source projects, once he gets more confident read clean code and head first design patterns. Maybe apply to a graduate scheme or slightly larger company that can make a more long-term investment.

    I think that's good advice, I hope not too harsh.
  • 9
    If anything, it should have been harsher. Junior is short for "junior dev", and failing to write an if/else means he isn't a dev at all and thus shouldn't apply to dev positions.

    That's why companies do super-easy coding tests like Fizzbuzz - to filter out such frauds.
  • 4
    @Fast-Nop yeah, it was fizzbuzz.
  • 4
    Couldn't write an if else?! Come on, i wouldn't feel bad, I'd be pissed he was wasting my time by applying. I expect a junior level dev to be at the level where they can do a lot more than that.

    A junior dev might have zero commercial experience, but they sure as hell shouldn't have zero coding knowledge.
  • 6
    @AlmondSauce indeed, I thought he was at intern level where you have little expectations and it's a bit more leaning on charity.

    I guess I'm not harsh enough 😅
  • 5
    As an interviewee I never realised the other side's point of view. Pressure to not fuck up and hire someone bad, represent the company, and not make the candidate feel like crap...
  • 0
    I have coworkers that can't write conditional logic. The entry bar is very very low.
  • 2
    @Benutzername do they make good coffee?
  • 0
    @Crost Great coffee.
  • 0
    Have heard about it before never looked at what FizzBuzz really is.

    https://play.golang.org/p/...
    This is correct right? Don't need else statement but you kinda need to know modulo or do some accounting.
  • 1
    @hjk101 You don't need it, but the more normal way tends to be to write that as one big, chained if / else block.
  • 0
    @AlmondSauce At most I would go for 4 if/if-else/else statements (for four different outputs) is that what you mean?

    Here are the implementations I could think of
    https://play.golang.org/p/...
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