How To Evaluate The Coding Skills Of Developers Before Hiring

By Author: Halcyon Knights
Total Articles: 1
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Let’s be honest: interviewing developers is hard. It takes time, it takes effort, and it’s difficult to know whether or not candidates will be able to do the job well. To make matters worse, many Technology Recruitment companies still use outdated interview methods that don’t provide much insight into whether candidates will be able to succeed in their roles.

Fortunately there are some simple ways you can skip the traditional interview process altogether by testing for skills directly with coding challenges.

Dig into their programmer portfolio
As a developer, you’re likely to see your work as an extension of your identity to Technology Recruitment. That means you probably want to show off the best examples of code that you have written.

So how do you go about doing this? First, look for examples of code they have written in their portfolio. If they don’t have one, then ask them if they can send over some examples via email or Slack so that you can get a sense of what type of projects they work on and what skills they possess.

Take a look at their GitHub account
You can also ...
... take a look at the candidate’s GitHub account. This is a great way to see how someone codes and how they work with others, as well as an opportunity to see how they write documentation.

Ask about their use of Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow is a popular question and answer site for developers. It's best known for its Q&A format, but you can also use it to post code samples and have them reviewed by other developers. If you're looking to hire a developer, make sure they're using Stack Overflow regularly.

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You can ask questions like "How do you use Stack Overflow?" or "What was your best experience on the site?" Look for answers that show familiarity with both posting content and receiving feedback from peers. You'll want someone who has an understanding of how this tool works, as well as how to get value from it.

Live coding interviews
Live coding interviews are a great way to test a developer's skills. They allow you to see how they write code and how they react under pressure. Here are some tips for preparing for a live coding interview:

Prepare your questions ahead of time and make sure that you have all the necessary information on hand when it comes time to interview them.
Give the candidate ample time before asking them live coding questions. This will give them an opportunity to warm up so that their answers will be more coherent and confident, which in turn helps with being able to judge their overall competence as developers.
Ask them about past projects instead of having them write code from scratch in front of you—this gives you more insight into what kind of environment they work best in (and whether or not this is a good fit for your company).
Conclusion
The best way to test a developer’s coding skills is by having them live code. In this way, you can see how they think and work through the problem, as well as how quickly they can get results. You can also use online platforms for Executive Search.

The key here is not just speed but also understanding of what’s going on under the hood — this will help you avoid hiring someone who knows only enough syntax to pass a basic interview but doesn't really know how computers work.

Source: https://itrecruitmentinfoblog.wordpress.com/2022/09/19/how-to-evaluate-the-coding-skills-of-developers-before-hiring/