Core IT Interview Questions?

Aengus asks: "We have a round of job interviews coming up and the people we will be interviewing will be of different backgrounds, so we are looking for a core set of general questions that you could apply to any IT/CS candidate that would display that they knew what they were talking about. ie questions that are not language or job specific. So far all we have come up with 'What algorithm is your favourite or most commonly used?'....." What questions have you been asked on interviews you have participated in?

Comments

Some things that I've found helpful

[PD]

computer history:

-They should have a general idea of how Bill Gates purchased MS-DOS from DEC and how Seymour Cray was out flying his airplane when the IBM sales people came to visit him, virtually guarenteeing that they would choose Microsoft

-They should have general knowlege of how operating systems have evolved, for example the general progression of operating systems. Multics code was used to make UNIX v.7, which was used to make XENIX (by SCO), which was used to make both OS/2 and Windows NT. They should know that Penguins mean Linux.

-They should know about various microprocessors, (8-bit) 8086, 80286, Z80, and i860; (16-bit) 80186, 68020 (32-bit) Pentium, etc.

-It's also nice to know about computer languages, (structured) COBOL, FORTRAN; (OOP) Modula-2, APL; (database) SQL PLUS

programming: general knowlege of algorithms. They should be able to name an efficient sort algorithm (bubble sort) and describe what an array is.

Of course, these are all very general questions that only the most ill-informed would get wrong.

Ask a leading question...

[saarbruck]

such as "Why is C++ better than C?"

and see if they have the fortitude to disagree with you, or if they just tell you what they think you want to hear. (Of course, they might truly agree with you, but that's what the polygraph strapped to their arm is for...)

Not me, but someone I knew asked...

[KurdtX]

"Quick! You have two minutes to name as many ways as possible to kill someone with a doorknob. Go."

(Give it a try, then read on...)

After a few seconds of silence and questioning looks (to which he just started looking at his watch) most people got going. It works great 'cause you don't hire the people that can't come up with any, and you have security escort out the ones that go for the whole two minutes.