Interviewing the Best

An approach to programming interviews that is not based on technology-specific questionnaires or algorithmic problems. Especially fit for Apple software development engineers

Nikita Lazarev-Zubov
7 min readJul 6, 2022
Programming interviews
Photo by Egor Myznik on Unsplash

The best interviews start with one question, followed by a conversation on any topic that comes to either party’s mind. Therefore, it’s important to pick theright one. And my choice is…

What Programming Languages Have You Worked With?

Apart from a straightforward answer, the question encourages the candidate to share their practical experience and their pains in day-to-day work, as well as their personal preferences.

However, not all candidates are as talkative as you want. It doesn’t mean they should be immediately rejected, but you’ll have to do a little bit more work asking some guiding questions. Here’s one:

What Is Your Favorite Programming Language, and Why?

This innocent question should give you an idea about a candidate’s professional attitude to their craft: Do they care at all what they do, and, which is more important, how they do it? The topic should also help build an impression about the candidate’s experience and…

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Nikita Lazarev-Zubov

Swift and general programming topics, Agile software development, soft skills