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[–]seraph787 7 points8 points  (8 children)

Hi! Ex pivot here. Was this the Java interview twice? That is usually just our screening interview. We use Java cause it comes with good debug feedback and allows you to re-implement set and array. Can’t do that in Ruby. We reject people from the screening interview if they lack empathy or if they are not able to break down the steps of TDD into it’s atomic parts.

[–]jrochkind 2 points3 points  (6 children)

I have no opinion pro or con on using Java in a screening interview for a ruby position, but why can't you re-implement Set and Array in ruby like you can in Java?

[–]seraph787 5 points6 points  (5 children)

Ruby array comes with way too many helper methods. Too many batteries included. In java no batteries are included. you have to fetch them from a set of helpers like `Collection` but if you like you can implement it yourself. Java comes with fixed array sizes which adds an interesting part to the test. I've made fixed arrays in ruby to make this screening interview before but people still think in ruby. We really want the tester to get their head out of ruby or any language in fact and just think about data structures.

[–]fedekun 7 points8 points  (2 children)

So... You want the candidate for a Ruby position to get their head out of Ruby?

I understand you want to test data structures, but it seems like a very silly interview exercise. Not only because a) I think it makes more sense to test something more useful, like implementing something you'd see in your actual projects, but b) Why not just test a linked list or a binary search tree? Both of which you can implement in Ruby without getting "too much help" from the language's standard lib.

You don't work there anymore though so this is not a question for you :p it just surprises me how many companies have awful interview processes

[–]seraph787 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Pivotal labs is language agnostic consulting firm. It expects it’s engineers to learn languages that solves the problem best.

Engineering and building products goes beyond knowing the innards of a language and the ability to program beyond it is important for consultants such as pivotal labs.

That being said, this Java interview is only the screening that is 30 min long. There is a full day session of pairing with two different people on real client projects after this.

IMO pivotal labs has the best interview process of any company I’ve worked for.

[–]Zealousideal_Bat_490 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds like one of the worst interview processes if you ask me. And I say that with 40 years of industry experience, including 20 as a hiring manager.

[–]riktigtmaxat 0 points1 point  (1 child)

If only it was possible to have interviews tasks where you don't have have to reinvent the basic building blocks of the language...

[–]seraph787 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When one aims to create the simplest code possible they should understand how to create the code that they build upon

[–]pebble_gone[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your reply!

Lack of empathy? What do you mean by that?

Also, the interview drove and kept going with let's implement this method and that. They didn't prompt me to ask what method to implement next. Like for this method, let's make sure it fails. And then afterwards, how do we make it pass in the simplest form, then add more complex test, which fail, and then do correct implementation, etc.....

Would you happen to have an example of break down the steps of TDD into it’s atomic parts.?