I gotta admit I hate those coding tests. I work much better when there aren't any one looking over my shoulder and I can occasionally refer to my notes/prior work.
Yes, I can easily code a login handler and db look up and all that other shit. But I dont really want to reinvent the wheel every time.
I've been coding for 40 years, but I use such a variety of languages and IDEs that if you asked me to code on the spot with no computer, I'd look like a complete mess. Sometimes when switching languages I struggle to properly syntactically write a for statement.
and I can occasionally refer to my notes/prior work.
Say so during those tests. You are encouraged to talk during those tests. "Hey, I wrote something very similar for X, I would look up which library I have to import and how the function is named. Alternatively I would look up the API to get the function name".
It isn't really important if you forgot if you access a vector's size by .size or .length (well you should know that in your language of choice, but you get the point). A good interviewer would then tell you if it's .size / .length to keep you going and not weight it against you.
Same with the example from OP - if you forgot how the 3d rotation matrix around the x-axis looks like... say you would look it up. If you want bonus points say where the "1" is placed, but where you have the "-" is ... not important to your skill as a programmer.
I hate them too, and I've been on the other end of them where I just had a complete brain-fart and whiffed it.
But damn, you would be amazed at how useful they are to weed out people who are clueless.
In this case we weren't going for a gotcha, it wasn't any sort of trick question. It was a very basic 2 or 3 line function to take a vector and an angle and perform a transform on it, and return the result.
It would be one thing if someone were looking for a junior gig and would expect a lot of hand-holding. It's something entirely different when they think they're a mid-level developer, and they have this perception only because nobody in their lives have ever told them that they don't know anything.
I gotta admit I hate those coding tests. I work much better when there aren't any one looking over my shoulder and I can occasionally refer to my notes/prior work.
Yes, I can easily code a login handler and db look up and all that other shit. But I dont really want to reinvent the wheel every time.
I've been coding for 40 years, but I use such a variety of languages and IDEs that if you asked me to code on the spot with no computer, I'd look like a complete mess. Sometimes when switching languages I struggle to properly syntactically write a for statement.
Say so during those tests. You are encouraged to talk during those tests. "Hey, I wrote something very similar for X, I would look up which library I have to import and how the function is named. Alternatively I would look up the API to get the function name".
It isn't really important if you forgot if you access a vector's size by .size or .length (well you should know that in your language of choice, but you get the point). A good interviewer would then tell you if it's .size / .length to keep you going and not weight it against you.
Same with the example from OP - if you forgot how the 3d rotation matrix around the x-axis looks like... say you would look it up. If you want bonus points say where the "1" is placed, but where you have the "-" is ... not important to your skill as a programmer.
I hate them too, and I've been on the other end of them where I just had a complete brain-fart and whiffed it.
But damn, you would be amazed at how useful they are to weed out people who are clueless.
In this case we weren't going for a gotcha, it wasn't any sort of trick question. It was a very basic 2 or 3 line function to take a vector and an angle and perform a transform on it, and return the result.
It would be one thing if someone were looking for a junior gig and would expect a lot of hand-holding. It's something entirely different when they think they're a mid-level developer, and they have this perception only because nobody in their lives have ever told them that they don't know anything.
I have never sat on the other side, but I understand why they are used nonetheless. Though I still hate them.