I’ve seen a lot of Linked In posts lately about interviewers doing tests on candidates. What’s your thoughts on it? A lot of developers are saying they hate them and many feel they would fail under test conditions. I’ve not looked for a new job for years, but wondered how common they are?

what tests?

Discussions as interviews are more revealing that simple tests. So what if I can't implement a red/black tree of the to of my head. Doing A free form walk through of some hypothetical product level problems give hints about how a person thinks, how a person interacts with others, and something about honesty as well (never claim to know something you don't). Every developer uses the web every day as a resource. It's stupid to use an interview to cover that area. BTW, in my now 4th decade on the industry, I've never had to implement a red/black tree for a job.

Like, clinical tests?

@kescherRant That was a joke lol

Whiteboarding sucks. I've had to do it so many times and it's always bloody useless.

"Implement this data structure you learned at uni and don't remember by its name" is a shit, not a test

Seems like companies want to imitate Google and others.

But Google uses practical issues and interviewers look at problem-solving techniques, how the person thinks (looking at edge cases, going back and seeing their own mistakes), NOT at remembering some strange structures.

[When I was younger I was at "talented young" group meetings at Google, MS, and Facebook. They talked about those whiteboard tests a lot, to encourage us to apply to internships and later to work.]