Posted: 28/04/2021
Job Search 2021 _ A Live Programming Test
It's a new day, so its time for another interview, and this time its a live programming test!
I thought it was going to be setup like a "pair programming" concept, but turned out it was more of a "watch while you code", while talking about your decisions out loud with the occasional question thrown in.
Not particularly "real life"!
I thought I was going to be OK with this, but I struggled.
The challenge was to build a
yahtzee
game scorer.
During my career, I have architected, designed, analysed and built major systems for multi million pound companies, but the simple logic of taking a string apart and working out if 2 of the numbers are the same somehow completely baffled me when under this interview condition.
I think flexing these skills is sometimes underrated by me. Seeing the big picture of complex systems and being able to build them does not hide you from sometimes simple logic.
The problem I had was "overthinking" the issue. What I should have done was to just code it out with simple if statements. This made me get flustered at my ineptitude and lose all my confidence.
In a real life situation I would have gotten a cup of coffee or spoken to a team mate or even just looked up a solution:
- Here are 3 I found from just 1 simple Google search:
-- https://github.com/jjvdgeer/Yahtzee
-- https://exceptionnotfound.net/yahtzee-in-blazor-webassembly-part-1-the-csharp-model/
-- https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/8657/A-Simple-Yahtzee-Game )
However, tt was an interview so copying a stackoverflow answer was not an option even though we all do it without thinking too much about it.
Lesson learned
The thing I have learnt from this, quite frankly a little humiliating experience, is to practice these kinds of tests in advance just to get the brain juices flowing!
Oh well you live and learn, and you will never ace every interview.
In case it was not clear, I did not progress to the next interview round. Ho hum.
Thanks for reading this post.
If you want to reach out, catch me on Twitter!
I am always open to mentoring people, so get in touch.