Java and Python

[Ahmed Moustafa]

Peter Hansen wrote:
> Ahmed Moustafa wrote:
> 
>>Peter Hansen wrote:
>>
>>>Communication skills are, first and foremost, the thing I
>>>look for in hiring.  [...] Next are adaptability [...]
>>>Design skills are useful.  Debugging skills are very valuable [...]
>>>
>>Peter, what do you think about qualifying problem sets like what
>>arsDigita had? <http://www.arsdigita.com/boot-camp/psets/>
>>
> 
> I think that's an interesting sounding name for something.
> What is it?  I'll assume (without taking the time to try
> to figure it out... care to tell me?) that those are basically
> little exams which they use to judge candidates.  If so,
> you already know my answer: as I said, specific knowledge 
> of language syntax is secondary, since I'm more concerned
> about finding people with the skills I mentioned.  
> 

They are the problem sets of Philip Greenspun's MIT course Software 
Engineering for Web Applications (6.916) 
<http://philip.greenspun.com/teaching/old-one-term-web-6916>.

> If arsDigita (you'd think a company would know enough not
> to put the word "arse" in their name...)

It's owned by Red Hat now.

> has tests which
> evaluate communication skills, flexibility and ability
> to learn new things, and design and debugging skills,
> then I think their qualifying problem sets are a very 
> good idea...

I think yes the problem sets evaluated the parameters you mentioned.
-- 
Ahmed Moustafa