>It seems strange that the author has not met a single one that understands that concept since it is quite basic.
That's exactly what everyone says when candidates fail FizzBuzz.
The best explanation I know is that good candidates get hired quickly, so at any given moment, the candidate pool is dominated by people who keep failing questions like this.
- Stress-levels of the candidate
- Tone / demeanor of interviewer
- Communication prior to interview
I mean, sure, if you fail fizzbuzz interviews 10 times in a row, there seems to be some pattern going. But you could might as well fail it the first time, and get blackballed as incompetent.
Lately, my company has been looking for folks who can, essentially, compute the sum of items in an array in JavaScript. Seniors continue to fail this.
It would be great if they'd stumble over conundrums like "what if there are non-numeric entries in the array." Most often, they just stare and don't even start on the problem.
I can't really elaborate, but it's only barely more complicated than I'm representing. I'm with you. I can't believe it. Boggles my mind every time. And no we're not expecting a complicated solution.
That's exactly what everyone says when candidates fail FizzBuzz.
The best explanation I know is that good candidates get hired quickly, so at any given moment, the candidate pool is dominated by people who keep failing questions like this.