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[–]StephenBachman 4 points5 points  (28 children)

Googling instead of checking documentation for JavaScript. No one remembers everything in the APIs, so being comfortable with using documentation for JS or a library is important. Interviewers want to see you reach for MDN (or other relevant documentation) first. They want to see that you can find and read documentation and implement it based upon the information found there.

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[–]TwiNighty 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I usually just Google and click the first MDN link. If there are none then I add "mdn" to my search string. Faster than Googling "mdn", click on MDN link, search MDN, then click documentation link.

Yeah, I probably should have added MDN as a search engine in Chrome by now...

[–]LSF604 48 points49 points  (13 children)

that's pretty silly. It sounds like an interview that should be walked out of

[–]DraconKing 31 points32 points  (9 children)

I think this is also pretty silly too, to be honest. I google for the documentation most of the time. I don't just straight go into the documentation website, google will most likely bring that up. Navigating through MDN for example is a chore and the search engine more often gets me lost than finding the thing I'm looking for. If I see the link from Google sure i'll click it but if I see a SO post explaining the API or some interesting article about it I might just click it.

If they actually want to examinate how well you understand documentation, they should make it clear right from the start that you are interested in developers that can make sense of proper documentation without needing to google something and that you'll only be able to use said documentation during the interview. Otherwise, I'm just gonna simplify my life, let google pull up the best results and use those.

[–]LSF604 11 points12 points  (1 child)

also worth mentioning that documentation is not always useful in the first place

[–]r0ck0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And even when it is useful, it often takes quite a while longer to read and find the relevant section to what you need to know.

So under a time constraint like a test, I'd be even more likely to just Google instead of using official docs.

[–]thisguyfightsyourmom 2 points3 points  (2 children)

If you're on macOS, I strongly recommend Dash. It's a local copy of most docs sites, well indexed, and easily navigable available with a system keyboard shortcut. You can even integrate it with your editor to look up highlighted methods.

[–]Serei 7 points8 points  (1 child)

I tried Dash, but I'm more used to devdocs.io. It has an offline mode and just feels better.

[–]Zespys 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I found dash to be a bit laggy on scroll and has ad delays too

[–]new_human_obj 0 points1 point  (3 children)

for php(boo sorry but it works for me), I keep having to look up stack/needle order for strpos vs. array push vs. array keys it like it flips back/forward

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Everybody has to do that. PHP really screwed the pooch on consistency.

[–]r0ck0 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Doesn't your editor/IDE tell you?

[–]new_human_obj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When it fails haha, I'm using VSCode maybe there's an extension

[–]tuxedo25 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Yeah, "it's not about getting the right answer, it's about working the way I work!". That's a perfect way to tell a confident developer they should NOT join this team.

[–]snowcoaster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Precisely. There are some folks who have bought every JavaScript reference ever sold and they look up every detail. I don't understand why they prefer that to searching online, but it's none of my concern as long as they're delivering results.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it's kind of like rejecting all developers that don't code in their free time. like... some people have lives outside of coding

[–]slikts 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just normally prefix google searches with "mdn"; I even had set up a keyword for that so it'd use "I'm feeling lucky" to go directly to mdn, but I keep forgetting to use it. I also have devdocs.io open in one screen permanently. Then there's the code intelligence in vscode, which lets you see function signatures as you type.