Ayende @ Rahien

Rik Hemsley commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:24:59 GMT

I'll hire Tim Wilde please. Most sensible answer by far.

Tim Wilde commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:00:53 GMT

As much as I like writing code, my initial question would be "Can we use an existing system, rather than writing code that we'd then have to maintain?" and in this case, it's squarely in the sweet spot for an LDAP server which gives us a couple of _well documented_ APIs for "free" (the LDAP protocol and the System.DirectoryServices namespace.) AD LDS or OpenLDAP, perhaps? If it turns out that the aim is specifically to see your code, rather than to see how you solve the problem more broadly, then I'd ask more specific questions and fire up an editor having considered these other options first :)

andres commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:17:57 GMT

Ayende, What did you want to heard? Enlighten us!

Matt Warren commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:46:45 GMT

Is using Munin (https://github.com/ravendb/raven.munin) an acceptable answer ;-)

Bart Verkoeijen commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 06:03:36 GMT

Interesting mixed answers. Thanks for the hint Ayende, I'll use it in future interviews. :-)

Jared Kells commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:58:58 GMT

hahaha bob +1 +1

amiralles commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 03:53:54 GMT

I'll use ESE (esent.dll) I had heard that @ayende uses it in Raven, so... ;)

Bob commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:37:34 GMT

Just make sure you don't make a mistake, or you will be the subject of a future blog post telling the world just how shit you are.

Bartek Sarul commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:23:32 GMT

We all know Ayende would like to see this built on RavenDB ;-)

Bartek Sarul commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:22:27 GMT

We all know that Ayende would like to see this built on RavenDB ;-)

Robert O'Donnell commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:32:52 GMT

Is this a practical exersize where you want some code as the answer? or simply a detailed description of the proposed solution?

Fred commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:03:02 GMT

Excel, baby!

John commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:48:46 GMT

Mike, yes off course but I will still always suggest the simplest possible solution first. That tells you a lot about a candidate too.

Mike McG commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:45:39 GMT

Guys, give up on the text formats. The problem clearly states text-based formats are not acceptable. Does anyone here really think he's looking for someone who just knows how to invoke the SQLite driver? He spells out the requirements for a basic database engine with indexing. It's a multifaceted problem that can expose a lot about a candidate in their solution. Are concerns separated logically? How is performance addressed against disk I/O? How is code correctness validated (e.g. testing)? To submit a project that just wraps another database is disingenuous. He's looking for people that can solve problems head-on, not just pass the buck.

tobi commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:09:32 GMT

That is a pretty nice idea. I am not sure if it can be applied to a company which does not have such an excessive amount of great applications available. It might cause good candidates to skip your company because it is too much (speculative) work.

andres commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:00:12 GMT

.WAB files! http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms629733.aspx http://contacts.codeplex.com/

andres commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:56:12 GMT

Access!!

Tom commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:17:57 GMT

I would be surprised if there isn't already a "good" library available for download out there. Out-of-context questions are always a little odd. -What is this going to be integrated into? -What is the business reason for disallowing certain formats? I've run into those in the "real world", where a manager simply dislikes Technology X because he read an article 18 months ago that gave him a bad impression, which sometimes cannot be overcome with logic. -When you say "phone bookS for users" do you mean a single user may have multiple phone books? Are those user-managed? Is storage an issue such that a single contact should never be stored twice? I know I'm probably overthinking a plate of beans and this is simply an exercise where I should ignore the business/integration stuff, but I hate not knowing that other stuff.

andres commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:51:34 GMT

Firebird Embedded, MS SQL Express, MS SQL Compact, SQL Lite, etc

Bart commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:38:18 GMT

Use sql lite, it still uses a file!

Martincho commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:36:52 GMT

API:Linq to XML calls

configurator commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:13:25 GMT

"text based format such as XML or Json has been ruled out" - that's not something I could easily accept. You can't really suggest an alternative without asking why.

Ryan Heath commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:38:29 GMT

Here's my take. Viewed from the actual usage point. The internals are leftout. ;) // Ryan enum EntryType { Work, Cellphone, Home } class PhoneEntry { public string FirstName {get;set} public string LastName {get;set} public EntryType EntryType {get;set} public string PhoneNumber {get;set} } class PhoneEntryValidator { public bool IsValid(PhoneEntry entry); } enum SortBy { FirstName, LastName, } class PhoneBook { public PhoneBook(string phoneBookFilename); public void Save(PhoneEntry entry); public void Delete(PhoneEntry entry); public IEnumerable Entries(SortBy sortBy); }

Frank Quednau commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:25:09 GMT

Do you ask here for an actual implementation or rather an overview of the work involved, decisions taken, etc.?

Ryan Heath commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:18:46 GMT

Ok guys, submit your API :) // Ryan

Simon Skov Boisen commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:59:44 GMT

James, your probably right and I would have asked for an elaboration for that decision had I've been at an actual job interview. My question was more meant as a clarification as to what other types of storage he imagined would be suitable, maybe I had missed something or misunderstood the phrasing of the question.

James commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:23:29 GMT

Simon - I believe the fact that he specifically says XML and JSON have been ruled out is to see what kind of developer you are. You blindly accepted the specification. I expect the kind of candidate Ayende is looking for, he wants you to ask him, question him and explain why XML and JSON would be the way to go

Trevor Pilley commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:19:13 GMT

Would RavenDB be acceptable for the persistence?

Matt Davey commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:35:25 GMT

BSON seems like the obvious choice :)

Marcel Popescu commented on Hiring Questions–The phone book

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:25:38 GMT

Are all text based formats rejected, including CSV and fixed-width?