Discussion on Interview live-coding - Find Second Biggest number in array

Question

There seems to be some dispute about this question on if it's relevant for this site or not. I'm of the impression it can be, as the overall question boils down to:

Is this task really that hard? Or is it a good one that really shows if you can come up with at least simple algorithm and implement it?

However it was closed with the comment:

Put on hold. This is not a site where we review your interview questions. This is arguably not on-topic on any of the sites in the SE network but perhaps one of the chatrooms on SO or Programmers will be a better audience.

Source

Are reviewing interview questions for a postion and dictating if they are too hard off topic? Can we improve the question to make it on topic and if so, how? I feel it's at least salvageable, but not sure how to do it.

Answer 1

I edited the question to focus on how to determine if the coding task is too hard, and reduced the emphasis on the specific task of finding the second largest number in the array. This hopefully makes it applicable to a broader set of scenarios, as determining a "reasonable" degree of difficulty for interview questions applies to several jobs.

I have also cast the 2nd reopen vote.

Answer 2

I don't really want this site to become a, "what do you think of this interview question?" which is basically what that is.

The core is basically:

• "We're using this question, is it too hard?"

We could have literally thousands of equally useless questions about that sort of thing. There are books on this subject, especially for software engineering.

In my opinion in order for this to be a good question it needs to be something more like:

• "How can we evaluate whether or not a technical question is too difficult?"

and all the specifics of this exact question removed. That can be meaningfully answered, though with difficulty.

Answer 3

This site is about the workplace, not about specific jobs. If a question requires domain expertise -- in programming or plumbing or dentistry or any other non-HR field -- then it isn't a good fit here. The best places to get help on your programming problem are technical sites and our chat room.

The questions about interview questions that work well here are the ones that are more domain-independent -- what questions can I ask to evaluate how someone makes snap judgements (for a job that requires that), how can I evaluate someone's reliability, how can I screen for creativity, etc. (All of those would need to be developed more; those are just summaries.)

Answer 4

IMHO, it is definitively off topic as stated, we can't tell someone if that task is a good one to test people without even the job (Developpers ? Beginners ? Seniors ?), it's more about opinion than anything.

At best we could reformulate the question in a very generic way :

What criteria can I use to evaluate if an assignment is a good one to test interviewee ?

Some sample of objective arguments that could be given in answers :

• People that are considered competent in the company for the same level of job can solve it fast enough.
• The assignment evaluate something related enough to the job, for instance the exemple given by OP has little use if the job you candidate is to be a DBA or system guy.
• People that made through it have less problems to handle tasks that before that tests existed.

Answer 5

What is or is not a suitable interview question is very much a workplace issue.

I've seen questions about interview questions from the point of view of both the interviewer and the interviewee, though more often from the point of view of the interviewee. I assume there are more interviewees than interviewers, and the interviewers tend to be more experienced, and therefore have less need for guidance.

A Workplace search for "Interview Question", produces 4,669 results. Those on the first few pages that were closed were typically closed for being opinion based or company specific. There does not seem to be any general rule that the appropriateness of an interview question is automatically off-topic.

The only thing about this question that is unusual is that evaluating the appropriateness of the question requires programming experience. I don't answer questions about employment law and custom in India, not because I consider them off-topic but because I do not have the background knowledge to contribute. I suggest that participants who do not have the background to answer this question should do the same.