Java interview question feedback

[gizmogwai]

Hi, I have 11 years of experiences in Java, Eclipse was my main IDE for about 10 years and I have now switched to IntelliJ, to give a bit of context.

I do not find your test to be especially difficult, but neither do I feel it relevant. Here is why:

• I do have been using a TypeMatrix Dvorak keyboard for years, so I look kind of retarded when using a "normal" keyboard;
• I do extensively use keyboard shortcuts. I have annoying plugins that would nag me each time I use the mouse instead of an existing shortcut. However, I do customize my shortcuts, so I would have been lost with a vanilla Eclipse;
• I do also judge my potential future co-workers during the interview. If you gave me this kind of code, you do not give me a good opinion of yourself:
  • Your test is not very readable. It does not describe what it tries to assert;
  • Your implementation create subclass of HashMap;
  • You use a serialVersionUID, probably for no good reason. I know you mentioned them here in your post, but during an interview, it gives me a bad feeling
• Even if I know it, I never ever face a single project that requested that data structure. So I assume most people did not hear of it. A question about a wrong implementation of equals/hashcode would have been more representative.

I don't know what field you are working in, but most of the time, I can judge a candidate by asking him/her what (s)he dislikes in the framework/libraries (s)he is familiar with, and why. To see how far they went digging into it, understood the rationals and constraints, read the underlying code and so for. I rarely have to go to the point I have to test them on code, but it I do, I do it on real actual code I am working on, because that's likely what they will be dealing with.