Programming Practical Test

[zynder]

Hi guys!

I was instructed by my boss to hire a new programmer.

Do you guys know of a website that has programming test or practical programming to gauge the applicant?

Or if there isn't a website like that, what could be the best programming test to give him personally to proper gauge his logic and programming skills?

Languages to use .net/c#/sql2005.

TIA

-zynder

[vb_ftw]

go through the forum, find the resolved posts, copy/p their questions, print, give to solve, compare...

[zynder]

nice suggestion but i'm looking for a more generalized assignment like recursion, pointers, etc to gauge the logic/skill of the applicant. What small app specs should i give him?

I want him to create an app that have those criteria like recursion, linked list or pointers.
I'm thinking of letting him create an app and generate 5000 random text and put it in a database. Then on each prime numbers put a "this is a prime number" text. Something like that.

Do you have another example in mind?

[techgnome]

I had a few of those when I was looking a few months back. they are OK... but they are still not substitute for a real interview and getting to know the candidate. Too often the question requires a textbook answer when a real-world answer would be better. I'll dig through my old emails from back then and see what companies they were through.
One that I remember off the top of my head that was used by several of my prospective employers was ProveIt. http://www.proveit.com
If you google "technical skills assessment" you'll find loads more.

-tg

[zynder]

@Techngome

Thanks for the helpful reply. Do you have any on the fly exams on your mind? Like if I was an applicant and you're the senior programmer. What would you want me to do to test me?

I'm looking for small program ideas.

Example:
Create an app that will convert currency(numbers) to number sentence.

I need more of that small program scenario that uses c#.net and a database.

[GaryMazzone]

Here is a simple one for SQL:

You have a table that is just a single field of numbers, they range in value from 0.001 to 100,000. Find the x highest number. x being some thing from the 2nd hightest to the 999,998 higest?


I would do it like this:

Select * From (
Select
NumField,
Row_Number() Over (Order By NumField DESC) As MyRowNum
)
Where MyRowNum = x

[zynder]

Hi Gary. Thanks for the scenario. What are the input values in that? Randomize perhaps?

Ok so i will tell the guy to add random numbers from 0.001 to 100,000 and then find the highest number in that column.

Thanks for the input I need maybe 2 more examples thanks.

[GaryMazzone]

No the highest number is simply select max(fieldName) from tablename. That will make him think of finding something in the middle.

[techgnome]

The nice things about the ProveIt exams is that you simply tell them to "test the applicant's VB knowledge" ... and it will pull questions from their extensive library. I think you can also vary the difficulty of the exam - entry level vs sr. developer - the results it gives shows how the applicant did (got 6 out of 10 right) and does a comparison against others that have taken the test (did better than 80% of other examinees...) At least that's the impression I got. The ones I took (I took a couple of VB.NET, as well as VB-in-general, and SQL ones ) and did well enough. The length ran anywhere from 30 to 40 questions and ranged from simple things (adding a reference) to slightly more advanced topics (like reading through 4 options of code and selecting which code segment will produce the desired outputs). Sometimes the questions involved reading some code and determining which answer is the correct result.

If you're looking for something more on the fly as you put it... just think about some of the things you do in your shop from day to day... at a previous job we had out candidates white board a database design with a given senario. And then white board the classes and UI design too. shows us if they can think on their feet, do they ask questions (generally speaking, what we give them is vague intentionally... no one ever gets perfect requirements from the user, right?) and it tests their ability to reason things out logically.

One of my supervisor's question was to ask the candidate: If you were tasked with counting all of the gas stations in the world... how would you go about doing so?

There was never a wrong answer or a right one either. But the look we'd get and the answers were interesting.

One of my favorite questions to ask - this tests someone's reasoning skills - and there actually is a right answer on this one is: Why are manholes round?

I'll leave you to figure out the answer.

-tg

[MartinLiss]

Moved because this is not a .Net querstion.

[moti barski]

i know of a certain programmer who has solved artificial intelligence using vb.net

[techgnome]

i know of a certain programmer who has solved artificial intelligence using vb.net

And what does THAT have to do with anything in this thread?

-tg

[FunkyDexter]

Personally I always design my own questions when I'm interviewing candidates. We have a SQLServer app where the logic's in SPs with a very thin client (horrible architecture) so I'm primarily concerned with their SQLServer and TSQL ability. I'll ask some basic questions like the difference between Union and Union All, what are the different types of Join etc. Some harder questions with specific answers, usually along the lines of "Give me a sql query that achieves X" where X is a deliberately difficult thing to achieve. And some more open ended questions like "How do you go about performance tuning a query?"

The most important thing, though, is that I sit with them while they answer the questions. I'm not particularly looking for someone who's going to give me a textbook answer. Instead I want to see the questions they ask, the things they try etc. I want to see that they think the right way.