Having candidates solve problems related to your business also gives you a better idea of how they’d actually work. It’s also less likely that someone random will attempt to answer the question even if it does make its way to the internet.Īnswering generic algorithm questions benefits everyone, but who wants to spend their spare time solving a problem for a company they’re not going to interview with? This will give you a better idea of their problem-solving approach and if it’ll be a good fit for your team. Like in a business, there should be collaboration as the candidate works through the question with you. If you’re using a business-specific question, it will be a lot harder for a candidate to find the answer – usually because there is no one correct answer. Make your questions specific to your business

They have more important things to spend their time on – like coming up with unique solutions to your business cases. Unpopular opinion: Googling should be encouraged, as developers of all levels use Google to solve issues other engineers have already encountered.Īs a manager, I’m sure you’d rather have your employees look up to see if there is an existing solution to a common problem rather than spend hours (or days) trying to come up with a solution that already exists.