coding challenge: is there a cognitive bias based on chosen language?
Hi,
As my username implies i've got a background in c-based languages, however at this point i consider myself more to be a polyglot developer, frankly just a developer.
I'm wondering however if there exists a cognitive bias in the hiring process / coding interview. e.g
Candidate picked python Eh, he solved the question, but Python is so high level, memory is managed, bad a threading. He probably doesn't have a good understanding of these concepts.
Candidate picked C++
Nice.
Candidate picked C
Wow.
Candidate picked GoLang
Oh nice. Our GoLang requirements aren't actually that massive though.
Candidate picked PHP
Lads we've got one for the basement!
Candidate picked Perl
Release the hounds.
etc.
Posted Sep 17, 2019, 7:22 AM UTC
32
It probably depends on the nature of the job. As I'm sure you well know, there's plenty of places for python outside of efficiency-reliant code. If you were, say, writing a web crawler or automation tools then python would be ideal. A company probably does have time-space complexity problems in mind, but the solutions are more or less based on pseudo code and simplicity, not absolute speed. Many companies will be satisfied with a whiteboard answer.
You're thinking rationally here. I'm asking about cognitive biases, which are not rational..
If someone codes up the answer to your question in flawless C, wouldn't that have a halo effect where you automatically assume they're great at everything?
Again, biases, not rational thought.