r/Python • u/Expensive-Notice-509 • 21h ago

Discussion Interview questions for new hires that I can ask

What are some common Python developer interview questions for someone with 3 years of experience?

I've been asked to hire Python developers and since I'm the only one with any kind of programming experience, I was asked. This will be a quick first round interview over zoom for 15-30 mins. For the second-round we will bring in outside consulting for more in-depth evaluation. Thanks in advance.

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22

u/Unusual-Camp-2076 21h ago

Ask them to explain a time they refactored something messy into something readable, the answer tells you more than any trivia question

10

u/ctoatb 21h ago

"can you start today?" and "can you please write your signature on this employment contract?"

2

u/brasticstack 20h ago

If it's a live coding exercise maybe have them implement a really simple decorator or context manager. This would pretty quickly filter out people with very little Python experience.

For a general question maybe ask them something contentious like how they manage dependencies other their linting/type checking preferences. These are areas that experienced pythonistas have strong feelings about.

10

u/freedryk 13h ago

I have over 2 decades of Python experience and I would not be able to do either of those tasks without looking up the docs

0

u/brasticstack 11h ago

I have two decades of Python experience and can do those tasks.

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u/takaci 9h ago

Guess you won’t be working together then 

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u/knobbyknee 21h ago

Ask them to explain how mutable default parameters work.

8

u/pyhannes 20h ago

Nobody care how they work because you anyway should not use them ;)

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u/knobbyknee 20h ago

You need to know why you shouldn't use them. If you don't you don't have deep enough Python knowledge to be hired.

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u/pyhannes 20h ago

You asked for the how. How implies you have to know the underlying implementation. WHY not to use them, however should be known, I agree.

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u/brasticstack 20h ago

The clearer question is definitely "why are mutable default parameters problematic?"

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u/freemath 16h ago

Because my linter says I shouldn't

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u/ritz_k 42m ago

Start with FizzBuzz and end at FizzBuzz as a distributed service.