[SAGE] Re: Evil Interview Questions

["Adam S. Moskowitz" <adamm@menlo.com>]

Cat Okita <cat@reptiles.org> asked:
> what are some of folks favourite evil questions to ask (or that you've
> been asked?).

I don't believe in asking "evil" questions, nor do I think they add
value to an interview.

The questions I ask are designed either to see how much the candidate
knows about a particular subject, or to see how they think about
problems and how they approach solving problems. I'm far more interested
in how well a candidate understands a particular technology or area
(say, subnets and subnet masks) than I am in how much arcana they know.

Now, if I think a candidate is bluffing I might ask more detailed
questions, but almost always about more specific/lower-level details,
but not necessarily obscure details. Or, I a candidate gives a
completely wrong answer I might ask more detailed questions designed to
help them realize their error.

The closest I get to a "gotcha" is when I ask about subnets, and I say
I want "at least six subnets"; I expect them to know enough to ask/say
"you can have four or eight, but not exactly six -- how many do you want
me to use in my answer."

All my other tricky questions are problem-solving questions, and show me
how the candidate thinks about getting to the answer.

When asked "evil" questions, I almost always ask the user (in a polite
and non-challenging way) "why do you want me to know the answer" or
"what are you really trying to ask" or "why do you think knowing the
answer is of value?"

Or, I fall back on the line Elizabeth Zwicky and I independently came up
with: "You're paying me too much to know the answer to that question."

AdamM