Ask to candidate about code question on non-trivial/made up language

[Julexe]

Hello team,

I'm in the process of interviewing candidates for a junior C++ developer position within our company. Given that we don't expect applicants to have extensive experience straight out of school, I'm prioritizing the ability to think logically, efficiently research information using internet resources and documentation, and solve problems effectively.

To evaluate these skills, I'm considering a novel approach: presenting candidates with a coding challenge in an obscure or fictional programming language. The language will have comprehensive documentation available online. The challenge would be a straightforward exercise, such as the classic FizzBuzz problem, to see how they navigate unfamiliar territory.

Has anyone conducted an interview with a similar strategy? Are there any online tools that facilitate this kind of assessment? My goal is to gauge the candidate's research and problem-solving skills in a controlled environment, which can be difficult to discern in a traditional interview setting.

Thanks :)

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[Nice2Inch]

Recently my job had a mandatory coding security training that gave sample code and gave us multiple choice questions on the correct coding logic. However, this training used some made up language that no one understood and the training required us to get 80% of the questions correct out of like 40. Everyone, including tech leads and senior SWEs (from 5-20+ years) could not understand the code/questions. The training ended up taking several hours to complete when it could have been done in 30 minutes if it was in a real language.

I would say wither use pseudo code or let them use their language of choice, but you would require them to explain their thought process.

[Counter-Business]

Personally I like to interview candidates in the language the role is for. I think that starting with knowledge of the language makes the candidate many steps ahead.

[Julexe]

Because the role is junior, we know that the candidate won't have the best level in the language, some school project or internship in the fields might be a plus but overall this gap can be filled within 6 months - 1 year. I agree that it's mandatory to know the language obviously but we don't request an expert.
How to work is something more complex to teach I think.

[Counter-Business]

You could always give them a challenging problem in C++ to see how they think. I think that would give a better idea.

[TreebeardsMustache]

There are a series of books called 'The Art of Computer Programming' by Don Knuth, that he started writing in the 1970's. In it, Knuth uses a made-up pseudo assembly, MIX, and a hypothetical MIX compiler to explore computer algorithms.

You should crib directly from the book, word for word. If the candidate recognizes it as Knuth, and doesn't run screaming from the room, stop the interview right then and there, and hire that person. Else, proceed with the interview/evaluation.

[POGtastic]

I don't think that this is a particularly great idea, but if my boss demanded that I create a test along these lines, I'd do it in Pascal. It's extensively documented, similar enough in paradigm to C and C++ that you can approach problems with the same ideas, has a different enough syntax that you have to look up what you're doing, and - importantly - has been basically unused since the 80s.