How can we test a developer's skills?

Posted by Antony Penn on April 27, 2009 under Miscellaneous | Be the First to Comment

Hi Tom,
I've been a developer for 21 year and currently have a team of 5 developers whom I tested and recruited myself. You have a few problems to deal with:

Their coding ability and general problem solving skills can be tested via a company called brainbench. They do on-line tests that cost about £40 each time. I was made to sit the php5 one and it took me about 2.5 hours. It was a very good overall test and I can forward you a copy of my results it you'd like to see what to expect.

I give my candidates an 80-question test, including English comprehension, maths ability, logic solving ability, a variety of LAMP questions and some programming problems. Some of the problems are in LAMP and involve spotting details/problems, others are in a 'psuedo language' that is made up and they are given the rules to. You might be able to find examples of such tests online.

I generally test for intelligence and understanding of programming concepts rather than a specific 'shopping list' of skills, as different languages and tools can always be learned. In your case you also need someone with very good analytical skills, who can talk with you on a non-technical level and translate your business requirements into a working (and, hugely important, easily maintainable) system.

The other problem is the code that has been developed for you to date. If it has been badly written, then unless your new recruit is allowed to re-build it from scratch, any good technique he has may not be able to be applied. You should get the system you have had developed 'examined' by a couple of people to see if they think it is up to scratch. Similarly i'd find another 1 or 2 'friendly' developers to help gauge your potential recruits. Developers (especially less worldly wise ones) have a habit of 'slagging off' code written by others.

As a very general rule, a developer that has worked in many different types of companies and different projects (and also with larger development teams) is more likely to have honed a good development methodology compared to one with less work experience.

regards,
Antony

2009/4/27 Tom Watts <[address removed]>
Hi everyone.

Long time listener, first time caller.

I was hoping that someone on this group could offer some advice…

We're in the business of building and running online communities for research and innovation, which we deliver to brands and agencys. Part of our proposition is the delivery of our bespoke social network tool.

To date, we have been working with an external agency, who have done a good job at building our product to specification. However, as business ramps up, we are looking to refine the product and introduce new features and services. As such, it has become necessary to recruit a developer, who is versed in the use open source tools (LAMP).

We've looked around and have a good final list of candidates, who we feel could be a good 'fit' to our existing team.

The one area that we have yet to test for is the ability to actually code – including their approach to coding. Not having these skills internally, it is difficult for us to achieve this. As such we were hoping to find some form of test that we could give them.

In my mind, I thinking of a simple 1-2 hour exercise, whereby the candidates could make a simple web application/service/feature, which would demonstrate their skills. We have a friendly developer who could then look through what they have made and give us an idea of their abilities.

Is there such a test that people know of? If not, perhaps there is a different approach that someone has used successfully?

Either way, I would very much appreciate any ideas people may have.

Thanks in advance

Tom
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Tom Watts
Director

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