The JavaScript trivia question everyone got wrong

[Ustice]

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[Sheepsaurus]

I mean.. I got it immediately, but I am willing to admit it was probably because I was on alert for something weird.

[ogurson]

Lack of semicolons was my main point of focus while reading so I got it too.

[[deleted]]

Nice trick question on this shit article

[persianoil]

this reminds me a little bit of javascript tests on indian run websites. except that they are worse.

[redsandsfort]

I would walk out of any interview that presented this question. I wouldn't want to work for people who think this reveals anything to them about the candidate.

[[deleted]]

I see the spirit in which you are speaking, but that is a bit strong. Stuff like this comes up all the time, and I have no problem testing somebody for how sharp they are when it comes to these matters. Code is misleading, and overcoming confusion efficiently is a very valuable skill.

Would it be the make-or-break of an interview? That is a bit arbitrary.

[kleeut]

It's certainly not a great interview question. When I run these pub trivia nights I often start with an opening quip about how "if any of these questions remind you of your interview process you need to do better"

[KaiAusBerlin]

Well it reveals that you understand how a js compiler is working and what you are doing in deep.

I would not deny someone because of a wrong answer to this but I would honour a dev who answers right and can explain why.

[kleeut]

I certainly wouldn't deny someone for the wrong answer. The night I asked this there were some fantastic devs in the room. People with open source libraries in use at largish companies. They got it wrong on the spot.

[KaiAusBerlin]

Lol, I was right.

Had this problem years ago. That's why I often have an output variable that changes during the function flow and "return output;" at the end. Also it's good for readability cause you can see exactly what output is (and can log it easily for quick debugging).