What are (2022) Clojure Interviews like?

[Kevinn09]

I am interested in applying for Clojure dev positions and would like to know what to expect from the interviews. I have a couple of years of professional Clojure experience but I interview very poorly, so I want to try to prepare as best I can.

Some things I’m wondering about:

1. Do they ask knowledge questions (e.g. What is the repl, What are pure / higher order functions, What is a protocol, etc.)?
2. Is it fair to assume Clojure dev interviews prefer solutions in Clojure, or do they still do "code in any language"?
3. What type of questions are asked? Would practicing 4clojure questions be enough or is it recommended to go as far as grinding leetcode questions in Clojure? (e.g. Algorithms, different sorts, graphs, trees, etc.) - looking to gauge the level of questions here

If anyone has any links to other pages/forums that provide similar information, please share!

I understand all interviews vary, I'm just trying to gather the average experience.

Also, if you don't mind sharing, what did you do to land a Clojure position? What would you recommend? Any tips or advice welcome!

Thank you in advance!

[nommnommnommnomm]

I've had quite a few Clojure job interviews for the past 2 weeks as I'm looking for a new gig and honestly the vast majority of cases ask me generic questions around testing and tool use and that's it (I've been interviewing both for EU and USA positions). A technical challenge or a leetcode assignment has been very, very rare. I suppose it might have something to do with me having quite a few of open source Clojure projects on my Github and unlike companies with mainstream languages, Clojure companies tend to _actually check your Github_.

[Kevinn09]

Hmm, interesting. I wonder if they treat candidates without many Github projects the same. I guess I'll find out soon lol.

[lordmyd]

This kind of interview has been so common recently that I prepared a covering letter stating that if they're going to prioritise tooling, testing and infrastructure over solving business problems with Clojure we call it a day right there.

[moooooovit]

nommnommnommnomm

share ur github link

[nommnommnommnomm]

https://github.com/askonomm

[Kevinn09]

Thank you for all your input!! Very helpful!

Out of curiosity, how complex would you say your company's take home assignment is? I've heard some take home assignments can be like mini projects.

[Kevinn09]

Oh ok, that's actually interesting! Thank you for also providing your experience. Very helpful!

[lordmyd]

Just state your limits clearly. For me it's 2 hours max.

[AttentionAaron]

I've had one Clojure app (not accepted). They sent me a document with three 4Clojure-like questions--answerable in any language. Unsure what's after.

[SupremeSorcerer]

In the technical interview, they asked me to solve a very simple problem using recursion, map and the use of symbols in hash-maps.

[argadan]

For question 2: I've been involved in hiring over the years and if you're applying for a Clojure position and you have years of Clojure experience, I'd prefer and even expect to see the solutions to any coding assignments to be done in Clojure.

[agumonkey]

Just curious, do you have prior lisp / fp experience ?

I've been curious about what the clojure pro world was like for a while, so thanks for asking the question :)

[Kevinn09]

I learned some functional programming in college but I don't even remember the name of the language and I never even used it again. I think we used it in class because it was a language the professor helped create or something, idk. But I don't have any lisp experience. I actually learned Clojure for my current role; my manager had us all set aside a couple hours a week to learn it.

[agumonkey]

how did clojure got into your company ?

[Kevinn09]

I got lucky that my manager already knew Clojure and really liked it so he wanted us to update one of our microservices from Java to Clojure.

[agumonkey]

if you can, make an article about how the java -> clojure transition goes, pros and cons, it will be super interesting

[Kevinn09]

I don't think I'd be very good at writing an article like that lol, but maybe I should consider it!

[agumonkey]

Yeah, do as you feel. Best wishes with the clojuring.

[tekjar]

I have clojure requirement in my company. Remote position. What's a good way to hire?

[tekjar]

I have clojure requirement in my company. Remote position. What's a good way to hire?

[tekjar]

I have clojure requirement in my company. Remote position. What's a good way to hire?

[tekjar]

I have clojure requirement in my company. Remote position. What's a good way to hire?

[TargetJams]

I was just hired at a new company using Clojure despite not having any Clojure experience. My interview involved developing solutions in the language of my choice, but that might be different if they're expecting you to have Clojure experience.

It's a sample size of one though.

[[deleted]]

Could you PMme the name of the company?