NYCPHP Meetup

[Ben Sgro (ProjectSkyLine)]

Hey Again,

There's been a ton of great comments...I realize that the questions and 
tactics
I used in this interview session may not have been the best, but I have 
learned
a lot through this process, and look forward to doing it again in the 
future.

Someone mentioned asking the candidate to write a solution to a problem
then walk me through their code ... I like this, and I've had to do it in 
the past.
Actually, they just took the source code and told me they would get back to 
me.

I guess I wasn't 100% sure what types of questions would be appropriate, 
since
this is an intern position, and I don't except too much language specific 
knowledge.

I do expect..er want, a smart, hard working person.

"My books are filled with sticky notes sticking out of the pages with dozens 
of
things I want to remember."
heh, mine too!

"Someone who aces a programming test because they have memorized a manual is 
non necessarily a good problem solver."

Very true.

"Write an algorithm (not language specific code) to do the following:"

That's a good idea ... I may give more thought as too what I will ask as a 
problem
solving question in the future. I'll probably do a bit of googling to see 
what
others have asked, and been asked.

"BTW, I personally think swapping the contents of two variables without a
temporary variables proves nothing."

True, I guess I just like to see how quickly, and what way, they solve the 
problem.
*Any* problem will do I suppose.

Thanks again for all the feedback, its been a pleasure reading the replies.

- Ben


Ben Sgro, Chief Engineer
ProjectSkyLine - Defining New Horizons
+1 718.487.9368 (N.Y. Office)

Our company: www.projectskyline.com
Our products: www.project-contact.com

This e-mail is confidential information intended only for the use of the 
individual to whom it is addressed.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Shiflett" <shiflett at php.net>
To: "NYPHP Talk" <talk at lists.nyphp.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 9:36 PM
Subject: Re: [nycphp-talk] Questions to ask at a job interview?


>> Your first instinct, make a copy and then reassign the
>> values, is a straightforward way to do it.
>
> I agree that using xor isn't a very straightforward solution, but I do
> like to look for creative, clever solutions:
>
> $foo = $foo + $bar;
> $bar = $foo - $bar;
> $foo = $foo - $bar;
>
> By the way, I'm hiring. :-)
>
> Chris
>
> -- 
> Chris Shiflett
> http://shiflett.org/
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