How to Recognize a Good Programmer

KDan writes to share an article he has written about what some of the key factors in recognizing a good programmer. "It's not as easy as it sounds. CV experience is only of limited use here, because great programmers don't always have the 'official' experience to demonstrate that they're great. In fact, a lot of that CV experience can be misleading. Yet there are a number of subtle cues that you can get, even from the CV, to figure out whether someone's a great programmer."

Comments

The problem with recognizing people.

[Anonymous Coward]

This was rather sudden, Alice thought: but, after such a very strong hint that she ought to be going, she felt that it would hardly be civil to stay. So she got up, and held out her hand. `Good-bye, till we meet again!' she said as cheerfully as she could.

`I shouldn't know you again if we did meet,' Humpty Dumpty replied in a discontented tone, giving her one of his fingers to shake: `you're so exactly like other people.'

`The face is what one goes by, generally,' Alice remarked in a thoughtful tone.

`That's just what I complain of,' said Humpty Dumpty. `Your face is the same as everybody has -- the two eyes, so --' (marking their places in the air with his thumb) `nose in the middle, mouth under. It's always the same. Now if you had the two eyes on the same side of the nose, for instance -- or the mouth at the top -- that would be some help.'

`It wouldn't look nice,' Alice objected. But Humpty Dumpty only shut his eyes, and said `Wait till you've tried.'

Re:WTF is a CV?

[MyrddinBach]

I actually prefer not to move and would rather stick with one good job with a good company for a long time and I think I have finally found one.

Last time I looked for a job and was leaving my previous company for a multitude of reasons, which was about 4 months ago, I had about 8 interviews within a two month period and recieved 3 offers and I took the one that I believed to be the best.

I hope to stay where I am for many years to come.

Re:How would I recognize a good programmer?

[IBitOBear]

yes, I know. Part of the point of the question of "how you get". yes, I could have been more pedantic and written "when you can get" but I figured anybody in a position to judge the larger question (how to recognize a good programmer" would be in a position to understand the nature of the query ("how do you get") with out the instructional text as you have provided.

Clever of you to have spotted it.

Unnecessary of you to have posted your cleverness.

So you win one point for ADDRESSING the question.

But you loose one point COMPLETELY BLOWING the correction. With no definitions for A, B, C, D, and F and no invocation semantics on any of the identifiers, both would be ENDLESS LOOP noops _OR_ the former would be an endless loop while the later would be a no-op.

(but presuming A, B, C, D, and F are statements... then...)

Then you lose one point for being unable to recognize the separation of issue between the first half 'If they cannot explain why "while (X) Y;" is identical to the sequence "if (X) Y; while (X) Y;"' and the second half 'they cannot explain how to partially unroll a loop so that you get "A; B; while(F) { C; D; A; B;} C; D;" from "while (F) {A; B; C; D; }"' which is _not_ an assertion of certainty nor identical function, so the prospective. This would make the job of the prospective programmer to define or redefine A, B, C, D, and F so as to maintain the tautoloty _OR_ describe why you couldn't get the former from the latter.

Then you lose another point for "Doesn't think there is _any_ value to social norms." for feeling the need to be seen to "correct someone" for an omission or over-simple example but then only providing a partial answer that remains an incomplete definition of the problem set.

Then you lose _another_ point for "missing the big picture" of the post and only focusing on a detail.

So you are at -3 on the "good programmer scale" as proposed.

But thank you for playing... 8-)

[Wouldn't it have been easier and less humbling to have just read the post for content instead of a chance to get into a dick measuring contest? Before you respond too fast, remember "cannot laugh at themselves" is still up for evaluation... depending on how we hear your tone in the post you may be down by a half a point on that one already for "too eager to laugh at others"... 8-)]

We wont even get into the whole thing about "has no non-computer related stories or experience" even if you do show signs of "too much internet" poisoning.

And yes, I play a total dick on the internet. It's part of being able to laugh at myself as well as others. Many years ago I _was_ you, ready and eager to jump on any chance to show that I knew a particular detail or fact and yet totally unready to communicate effectively for that very eagerness.