I had this with one of my guys. He spent a week working on something and the validation at the end wasn't jiving.

He started showing me the complex solution and end results and so I said show me how you started and walk me through it.

It was step 1 the origin location of data was out of position.

I said if you start at this origin the rest of the numbers and data will work out.

He replied that the origin wasn't shown measured from somewhere, so how would we know location.

So I pointed out that the data to origin wasn't directly spelled out but if you take this measure and subtract this one that is your data origin start.

He said OMG I worked on this for a week trying to get the formulas working. I feel so stupid because you solved it in 1 minute.

I replied its not a question of smart or stupid (because my guy is way beyond me for formulae and programming) its just slowing down and following a process. And if you are confused, ask more questions, rather than just continuing.

Hash? Sure I can hook you up.

Are you sure you're management material?

(This is a complement)

Your candidates aren't mind readers though. If you want people to ask clarifying questions, you have to ask them things other than comp sci trivia questions.

I mean I'd probably go super generic and say something like "it's a deterministic function which turns a block of data into a usually smaller block of data, usually for comparing equality to the original block of data" which covers most of the uses?

If you ask a generic question, you're gonna get a broad answer, and if you want to draw clarifying questions, you need to ask a more complex question and provide insufficient information to answer it. Even then, making that question something you can easily look up online, and you either know or you don't, doesn't achieve as much as making the question something that you objectively won't know, and have to learn on the spot, as that shows your ability to learn new things including things you can look up on the Internet.

So, to start off, I'm someone who does not typically perform well during interviews because of anxiety (but through some miracle has had no issues with employment), so take this response with whatever bias that brings.

I believe this is bad too. You're still essentially asking a gotcha question, expecting one phrase in your answer and failing the candidate if you don't hear that phrase. And, in fact, I disagree with the premise. I think the question is defined quite well in the context of programming, given that someone answers with the possibility that there are many ways to hash something and many uses of hashing.

Fair point, but depending on the interviewee, you might get very different answers and/or follow up questions.

Even if they assume something, it might be just for the sake of the example. If they're competent, they'll follow up with another example and so on, depending on how exactly you pose the problem.

If you present it as an abstract question, one possibility is that you get an abstract answer. If you present it like a ticket with no description, you might get prompted to clarify.

The only definition of hash that I know is an identifier for an object created from that object's data. Everything else stems from that central idea. What other types of hash are there?

Related sidenote: I don't think I have any form of tism, but something activates when people ask computer science terms where my terrible memory goes "oh yeah I remember the dictionary definition perfectly, punctuations included, let's recite!"

Also I love the hash exampple. If they start talking about checksums and whatnot, you know their hobby lmao.

If you want something to blindly implement a vague task by making a ton of assumptions, just use AI.

@SkaveRat
in college I had a prof tell us to get into teams, then give us lego sets to assemble.

they were in the original boxes but the directions had been removed. I was the only one to go up front and ask for the directions and she gave them to me.

Apparently that was the whole point to the excersize. “ask for the resources you need"

@kamen