InfoWorld Home / Developer World / Fatal Exception / How not to hire a developer
November 05, 2009

How not to hire a developer

Google prides itself on its tortuous hiring process, but does its battery of bizarre tests really accomplish anything?

| Print | 15 comments|
189 Recommendations

If you're hiring, how do you find good developers? It's a perennial problem, and no one seems to have a surefire solution.

Aptitude testing is one method that's been gaining traction lately, albeit with a twist. Forget simple coding quizzes; these days, the kookier the question, the better. Mind you, what employers hope to achieve is beyond me.

[ Find out why software developers are immune from the recession. | Weigh in on the best first language for a programmer and whether the "hacker ethic" helps or harms today's developers. ]

Perhaps the best-known proponent of this technique is Google. As if its notoriously stringent academic standards weren't enough, Google's interminable interview process also involves a Byzantine entrance exam. Here's just one example of a typical Google interview question, according to SFGate.com:

Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?

All I can say is wow. I doubt I'd do well at this particular exam. The problem isn't that the questions are difficult, though I suppose they are. The problem is that they're asinine.

Anyone can make up a perfect-world scenario: "A certain branch of government contains 435 representatives, all of them equally honest and wise. No representative would ever vote for a bad bill, and every representative must vote for a good bill when it's introduced in proceedings..."

But there's another problem with this type of question: It seems to demonstrate less the applicant's problem-solving ability than the employer's own limited thinking.

Garbage in, garbage out
There's a published, accepted solution to the village-husbands question. According to it, a certain number of husbands are killed on the first day, then a few more the next day, and so on, depending on who has cheated on whom. It's all described in terms of the variable n and laid out as a neat little algorithm.

Here's my solution: Nothing happens.

If every husband cheats and every wife knows when another woman's husband cheats, then every wife is already aware of cheating in the village. The queen has introduced no new data.

Related Content...

White Paper

D2D Virtual Tape Library Replication Primer

This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.

Download now »

White Paper

An Alternative to Virtualization for Datacenter Cost Savings

Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.

Download now »

White Paper

Why Your Firewall, VPN, and IEEE 802.11i Aren't Enough to Protect Your Network

The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.

Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation

Download now »

White Paper

Bringing the Edge to the Data Center

Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.

Download now »
15 of 15 comments
Sign In or Register to comment
kamen 5-Nov-09 4:56am
well probably related question is how people like these can start using their brain/common sense: Why Wall Street could go to jail http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0812/gallery.parloff_quotes.... In other words: if people with similar way of thinking are your main bosses how can you prove obvious facts to them? There are well known adages: stupidity can not be beaten and the boss is always right. So there is trap...
TimSeaman 5-Nov-09 10:53am

The women of the village all band together and tell the queen that it is her husband that has been unfaithful, and the queen is then forced to kill her own husband. The women then kill the queen, take over the government, abolish all laws, go on Oprah to talk about it where they all receive new cars, and live happily ever after.

bluegrassPat 5-Nov-09 11:29am
What about all the married wives that cheated with the husbands? They should be killed as well!
Alexandra N 5-Nov-09 12:33pm
The queen of the "village"?
chrismaeda 5-Nov-09 12:55pm
These kinds of tests are useful for identifying which developers you want to put in the back room and let them happily hack away, and which developers you could put in front of a customer and not be embarrassed. The ones that see the puzzle as a fascinating math problem are the ones you might hire but leave in the back room, and one's that see the problem as a boring waste of time are the ones that you might bring on a sales call. The other problem with these kinds of tests is that they tend to alienate really senior people, who get where they are by being able to connect the dots between code and customer value, and who might see tests like these as a symptom of an insular organization.
ShauneS 5-Nov-09 1:21pm
I'm so glad to see someone call out the nitwits who think that wordgames are a good indicator of programming ability or creativity. When I hire a developer, I try to determine whether they can mentally connect code to business requirements, interact with others at acceptable social standards, and then give them a coding task and observe their problem solving approach. These nutty word puzzles only seem to help make those already in the organization feel superior and clever, and accomplish little else...
Ragnarok 5-Nov-09 2:22pm
If the user community is willing to go to their own expense to go around the "control" that IT has deemed from their Mt. Olympus meeting rooms, it has to make one wonder why. Perhaps IT can try something new. How about something like LISTENING TO THEIR USERS instead of just dictating things that only make sense to the high priests in IT ? I know that may seem like a really crazy idea to many IT folks, after all, what could those idiot users know anyway? If it just wasn't for the fact that those pesky "idiots" are your customers...something you guys always seem to forget. There is always a balance to be had in all things. When people are willing to spend their own money to get around policies that make no sense to them, YOU, Mr. IT person, are doing something wrong. Stop being so arrogant thinking that your solution is the only solution and open your minds to what your users are saying.
BigRonG 6-Nov-09 8:45am
In the '70s, the aptitude test of choice was IBM's spatial recognition test. Think of song 'one of these things is not like the other' - you would be shown up to six objects in various rotations and asked to chose the one that didn't match or select 'none of the above'. After taking that test and going through 370 assembler training, my trainer at Tandy lauded me as one of the best that they had ever had. However, a year later, my manager asked me to leave the corporation. He intended to fire me until I proved that his accusations were incorrect. The main point that he made sticks in my mind. As a new hire, I told him that I wanted to succede and do what I was instructed to do. In response, he told me that he had found that the less he talked to the people under him, the better that they did. I am left today with the conclusion that either he knew he was totally incompetent at his job OR that he viewed his programmers as the back room types. On my exit interview with the trainer, I mentioned that nothing of this nature had ever been discussed. Later one of my friends still working for Tandy told me that his entire group had been redistributed and he was assigned to the most senior developers in the shop.
bfr00 8-Nov-09 1:33pm
The villagers ignore management; again. Because they have provided redundant and destructive information that does not demonstrate a grasp of the organizational mission or the value of the staff.
clivew 10-Nov-09 10:44am
Came to the same conclusion as you instantly. Its the only sane answer to an insane question. Maybe that's why I have a successful 20 year career in software design and coding. Clive
vyengr 10-Nov-09 12:20pm
I think nothing happens,too, because the rules say a woman has to be able to prove her husband cheated to kill him. Not sure how you can prove what you can't know. But on to how to hire good developers ... I believe the only true answer is "by trial and error". If you don't try 'em out you might miss out on a gem. If you do try 'em out you will certainly find the clunkers pretty fast. "Expensive!" you say. If your current method of screening and selection has a 100% correct outcome then more power to you. However I'll bet that no matter what selection method you think you are using, it is really trial and error.
jeffq 10-Nov-09 12:22pm
There's an answer to this question? In the context you put it, I was expecting it to be a kind of Rorschach test, to find out very broad aspects of the candidate's personality. Do they ask for more details? Do they point out oddities about the situation? Do they state assumptions and proceed meticulously through an analysis? Do they laugh and say, "That's hilarious! Okay, what's really next in the interview?" I can imagine many different responses other than trying to develop an algorithm for a problem with more unknown variables than known ones. (Do the wives care that their husbands cheat? Can they expect other wives to tell the truth, especially if the other wife asked may be her husband's lover? Are the men aware of just how incredibly transparent their adultery is? What kind of justice system is there? Is testimony considered proof, and how much is needed for the mandatory mariticide? Is the queen expecting an execution, demanding complete justice, or just gossiping about what she's learned? Do the villagers obey the queen, or do they just put up with her visits until she moves on to bother another village? Do the women care if they wind up killing off all the men? Haven't they chatted with each other enough to realize there isn't a single faithful husband in town? Can the avenging widows move to another village with more loyal men?) Just how much of one's own social mores and expectations should one apply to this absurd little society? And how much relevance does this huge judgment call have on a candidate's fitness to the proposed work? If I were required to ask a prospective developer this question and demand "an answer", about the only "wrong" answer they could give me would be one in which they either failed to define assumptions and expectations (insufficient consideration of unstated factors) or made grave algebraic errors (remedial math needed), and I'd probably find their reaction to any criticism more useful than their attempt to "solve" such a weird problem with undefined goals. Every other kind of "answer" would be nothing more than a potentially intriguing but limited insight into their personality.
KEN 10-Nov-09 12:25pm
Well, the answer is the queen kills her husband and hooks up with the guy she is cheating with. It also explains everthing I've ever wanted to know about why Google does what it does. By the way, the queens action sets off an unintended chain reaction that requires all women to kill all the husbands. Have a nice day!!
webhead 10-Nov-09 1:14pm
Hmmm, I say the husbands all band together and overpower the women, then force the queen to change the law. Or they sell them off to a traveling band of nomads who don't know what they are in for, then go have some beers and raid the next village over for their women! RAWWWR!!! On the other hand, maybe being killed is better than being nagged at and made to feel constantly guilty. jk folks!!
HappyEngineer 11-Nov-09 8:51pm
I guess I'm the back room type. I found the question interesting. Wouldn't the woman who was unaware of anyone cheating have to kill her husband? If the queen says that one of the husbands cheated last night then the only person learning something new is the woman whose husband cheated. Therefore she would have to kill him. All other woman would have already known about it and therefore would know it wasn't their husband.

Sign up to receive InfoWorld Resource Alerts

Subscribe to the Today's Headlines: First Look Newsletter

Find out what will be news for the day, with our first-thing-in-the-morning briefing.

©1994-2009 Infoworld, Inc.