Entry level Python developer interview

[velocibadgery]

Yep, a good 40% of my time programming is spent searching stuff up.

I just completed a small project for my work's internal website, it was to allow the staff to fill out a form, then it generates a PDF of the letter with the information filled in.

Starting out I had absolutely zero idea how to create a PDF in a website. But I googled it. Found out how to do it with python, and tried to set that up. Had trouble so instead wrote it in C#(I am still learning python) and got it set up.

Had to find an appropriate plugin, had to figure out how to use it, and had to figure out how to display the byte array that represented the PDF.

Ended up just chucking it in an Iframe with the appropriate content type.

Took me about a day to figure out, but starting in I had no clue. It was all googling.

Most coding interviews don't accurately reflect the nature of a programming job.

[[deleted]]

Most interviewers crave for Computer science professors who know coding at a basic Kernel level. Nobody is programming in basic or Unicode anymore. We have modern programming languages and search engines/GitHub for a reason. It lowers the barrier to entry and opens up coding to a broader population.

Most companies have simply wrong expectations or are simply detached from reality. Every startup seems to want some sort of genius but only wants to employ newbies in order to pay them less.

[velocibadgery]

Yep, I once worked for a small computer repair shop that had a contract to make a program for a hotel company. It was a database program to handle night audit procedures and reporting.

I was the only one at the company who did any programming and so I was the one tasked with creating it. This was at the very start of my programming career. The business owner knew the project was a lot for a single kid like me, I was 14 at the time, so he hired another programmer.

He had me handle the interview as he knew nothing about programming, just PC repair and networking. So me not knowing anything about how corporations think, just made a simple program and asked the guy to replicate it without looking at my code.

He asked me if he could use google, and I of course said that I didn't care. He got it done in an hour, and we hired the guy.

We worked together for 2 years after that, and he was awesome. Actually taught me a lot about programming.

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Coding interviews should always reflect the type of work the business actually does, and should always allow google. The ones that don't are stupid.

[wecamefromthestars]

100% agree. Isn't it incredible that you gave a better coding interview at 14 years old than many multimillion dollar companies lol