#zuehlke #coding-challenge #senior-software-engineer
This repository is presenting examples for Zuehlke coding interviews for Senior Engineer. In a pair programming interview you are given the chance to solve an algorithmic challenge. The challenge is not difficult but approaching it correctly is important.
I'm describing my personal experience in this repository. I'm not involved with Zuehlke in any way. I want to say "thank you" for the experience to my two pair-coding instructors
The session takes about 1 hour.
Only what you key-in matters, not what you describe. Hence, if you are eager to create a verbose code to achieve a solution fast and do refactoring by relying on your test eventually - it will fall on your toes. They cut you of very quick, so don't expect too much of a patience. They might also help you out or ask some questions to bring you back on the right track :)
- align naming of your tests with your actual code
- do apply refactoring immediately
- don't keep global initialization in the method solving the algorithm to save time, put it immediately in the constructor or wherever it belongs
- don't focus on edge cases or illegal inputs, handling those do not count. If you are in doubt ask.
- normal for loops to iterate Strings are seen as bad style - prefer using something like streams API even you think it would be overkill.
- while you could think keeping the static method construct they provide to run the algorithm would be sufficient for the task at hand, it actually is NOT. Create a proper class, avoid static.
In summary the pair programming focus mostly on how you use your IDE, how you keep your tests in sync. The actual algorithm is less important, the structure of your code and how well you know the very detail of the java apis is the GO or NO GO.
Since you have to apply Test Driven Development (TDD) use gradle and leverage the --continuous mode, it allows to keep the gradle daemon running watching for code changes (live).
./gradlew test --continuous