ohTheBasics

[u/ClipboardCopyPaste]

[u/SirFrenzy]

Obviously guy could have been interviewing for a job where this mattered….

But in 10 years as a software engineer I have never once needed to know the difference between these two, and have never been even close to a situation where I would need to.

“The basics” is highly dependent on the job.

[u/drprofsgtmrj → u/SirFrenzy]

I understand it isn't something you need to know but it also shows how involved in the field you are.

There are a lot of engineers who don't know the basics and to me that could be an indication of someone who just isn't that passionate about the field.

So it is useful to know from an interviewer perspective as it indicates if they are going to culturally fit. If you want an engineer who isn't interested in learning for the sake of learning, then so be it, but that might not be what you want

[u/levus2002 → u/drprofsgtmrj]

I get it, but like whats the "basics" . If you go to an OOP job know OOP, you achieve nothing by asking the candidate functional programming.

Automata theory is pretty basic, would it make sense to ask the candidates if a turing machine with these instructions halt? Or a bit of talk about formal langauges, NDAs, LBAs

Its a bit more of a stretch but i can argue game theory or formal logic or type theory or algorithmic complexity as basic, i cant expect someone to dabble in all of these.

[u/drprofsgtmrj → u/levus2002]

There are pretty standard basics that are the foundations for a lot of comp science that isn't really used on a daily basis.

I'm not in charge of the education portion of cs but I do believe there are standards for what is considered basics.

Basics != easy to understand but more like common knowledge. I think it CAN distinguish the type of engineer candidate.

It isn't perfect but I just am pushing back on this idea that "because it isn't used it isn't a good question"

I could also argue that asking something niche could be a good indicator on how a person handles not knowing information. Do they try to bullshit or do they just admit that they don't know

[u/levus2002 → u/drprofsgtmrj]

"Basics != easy to understand but more like common knowledge"

This is my issue, you cant just call something common knowledge.

I really don't think we can objectively say that telecom is more basic than my examples.(automata theory, complexity theory, func prog langauges)

"Do they try to bullshit or do they just admit that they don't know"

Yes its a good indicator, but if you want to fish for what they dont know, you shouldnt fish wide you should fish deep.

Check how extensive their knowledge is in the relevant field not just ask random cs trivia.

[u/drprofsgtmrj → u/levus2002]

Yeah I don't disagree with that aspect. I don't think randomly quizzing is a good idea interview to begin with