Are they good, bad, a necessary evil?
The good:
“Talk is cheap”, the employer has a right to know if a candidate actually can spur that coding magic
The Bad:
Most tests have nothing to do with practicality. Solving mathematical equations is useless IMHO
How to make it all good:
1. Give ACTUAL problems RELATED to the job allowing a demonstration of technical depth, problem solving skills and forming an algorithm for the solution
2. Walk through with them how they solve the problem, do they enjoy the process?
If you are looking for an automation engineer, the only constant should be new challenges.
The ‘technical’ skills I look for to deal with this:
– Apptitude for designing algorithms
– “Testing Acumen”
More here:
https://lnkd.in/fdzfjy2
1000% Agree with you. I had an “automation” interview recently where the guy asked me to solve a Calculus equation. Talk about stupid. When I have interviewed people to work with me on automation projects I give them a code sample and tell them to debug it. That tells me first do they know how to program, second do they have good analytical skills (problem solving) and last that they can figure out where the problem is in code and know how to fix it. I don’t care about Fizz Buzz or Palindromes, I want to know can you dig into the code and figure it out.
Here’s an experience:
https://burdettelamar.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/square_root_of_5/