Two weeks ago, we published an article on how to recruit front-end engineers (click here to view). In the article, we analyzed the essential inspection points for front-end positions, and how to assess whether the other party can write high-quality code during the interview. This article has been well received by a large number of technical interviewers.
In addition to front-end engineers, Java back-end engineers are also a big job demand, and the recruitment of this position often causes headaches for technical interviewers.
There are two difficulties in its recruitment: on the one hand, since the back-end of most IT companies is written in Java language, the huge market demand causes almost all back-end engineers to know some Java, and the cost of talent identification is very high; On the other hand, a Java engineer is a position that requires a relatively comprehensive knowledge structure. It is difficult to examine the comprehensive ability of candidates only by digging project experience during interviews.
In this article, we will give tips to technical interviewers to help you find qualified candidates in the vast resume.
How to distinguish junior/intermediate Java engineers?
Before starting the recruitment, the interviewer needs to clarify the recruitment requirements of the position. Does the team want to recruit junior or intermediate Java engineers? Depending on the needs, the requirements for the degree of skill mastery of candidates will also vary.
Junior Java engineers need to have a solid Java programming foundation, the ability to apply common Java development frameworks and tools, and basic software development capabilities. In addition, good learning and problem-solving skills are also very necessary.
Intermediate Java engineers need to master Java advanced programming language features, advanced data structures and algorithms, advanced applications of common development frameworks, and in-depth software development processes and project management methods.
How to design a set of appropriate technical assessment test questions?
ShowMeBug interviewed more than 30 senior technical interviewers in the industry, and nearly 80% of the interviewers said that conducting a round of "pre-interview" with technical evaluation questions before conducting a formal interview can effectively improve the success rate of the interview, which is the key to technical evaluation It lies in how to set up a set of comprehensive test papers.
In terms of test center setting, we recommend:
In traditional technical evaluation, there are usually these types of assessment questions: Through multiple choice questions, some basic concepts are analyzed; through program reading questions, candidates are required to write the results of program operation; through question and answer questions, candidates are required to write code snippets ;Through some algorithmic topics such as "Frog Jumping Stairs", examine candidates' mastery of basic grammar and algorithmic ideas.
However, all four question types have certain limitations. The first three types of questions are difficult to accurately assess candidates’ ability to write and debug code. The knowledge points examined by the fourth type of questions are not applicable to the actual business needs of every Java back-end engineer, because not every Java engineer must be proficient Dynamic programming - an algorithmic idea to find the optimal solution, is rarely used in actual work scenarios.
How to judge whether a candidate can use a programming language or development framework to complete development tasks in an actual programming environment? ShowMeBug provides a solution - we support an out-of-the-box light collaborative IDE environment on the cloud, and can directly use actual programming questions for technical assessment.
ShowMeBug SpringBoot back-end framework programming questions
In ShowMeBug's question bank, we have set up hundreds of Java practical programming questions, which can be used by technical interviewers at any time.
Java programming questions in ShowMeBug question bank
Let's illustrate with an example. For junior engineers, if you want to check whether candidates have mastered the basic language features of the Java language, you can use this question:
If you put this question into ShowMeBug's online programming environment, candidates will see an interface like this:
ShowMeBug Java post programming questions
After submitting the test paper, ShowMeBug will automatically score the question with test cases, and the candidate's answering process will be recorded throughout the process, which is convenient for technical interviewers to conduct follow-up review.
If you want to check whether candidates have mastered the basic usage and affairs of SpringBoot, you can use this question:
For mid-level engineers, if you want to check whether candidates have mastered the advanced features of Java, you can ask this question:
In addition, if you want to check whether the candidate has mastered the advanced knowledge of SpringBoot, you can use this question:
Think this way of asking questions is too troublesome? Don't worry, technical interviewers can also directly use ShowMeBug's smart group test function. As long as you select the job title (Java engineer) and job level (beginner/intermediate), the system will automatically extract several questions from the job question bank and complete the test within 10 seconds.
ShowMeBug smart volume
ShowMeBug has strictly checked the professionalism of the test questions. ShowMeBug has analyzed tens of thousands of different JDs of the same position, and established a scientific talent assessment model for each position, and then displayed it in the form of a capability dimension map. All topics match the talent assessment model and can adapt to large Most companies have skills requirements for technical positions.
Of course, technical interviewers can also drag and drop the sliders on each capability dimension according to the actual needs of the enterprise, and the proportion of question types and the difficulty of test sites will also change accordingly.
Ability Dimension Chart of Intermediate Java Engineers
Through the technical evaluation link with practical questions, we can select a group of candidates with better programming ability, and roughly position their technical level according to the difficulty of the questions.
How to further assess candidates through interviews?
After completing the technical assessment, ShowMeBug will generate a job talent report with one click, and the company can view the candidate's job capability dimension radar map to assist in judging whether the candidate can pass the technical assessment and enter the interview process.
Radar chart of candidate position ability dimensions in the written test report
The interview process can be divided into the following four parts:
1. Written test review
Assuming that the candidate fails to answer the question about basic Java grammatical features during the written test, the interviewer can first ask the candidate about his understanding of the topic at that time, or he can directly refer to the structured interview question set provided by ShowMeBug for other questions about Java. Simple grammatical features to examine candidates' mastery.
The structured interview question set supports arranging the test sites in the same programming language according to the primary and secondary levels, building a standardized, complete and logical interview process for technical interviewers, and strengthening the breadth and depth of interview communication.
Java Structured Interview Question Set
2. Investigate more advanced programming skills compared to the technical evaluation link
If the candidate gets a high score on SpringBoot-related topics in the technical assessment, we can use the following question to in-depth examine whether the candidate understands the advanced features of SpringBoot:
3. Combined with job requirements, examine uncommon technology stacks
For example, use the interview question set provided by ShowMeBug to assess candidates' mastery of the Shell.
4. Project experience & technical interest
If you want to judge whether the candidate has actual project experience, you can ask the candidate to briefly describe the core logic of the past projects, and implement the function in the interview environment provided by ShowMeBug, so as to judge whether the candidate has fake resume.
At the same time, you can combine the candidates' resumes to ask them about the specific problems they encountered in their past project experience, the solutions they adopted at that time, and their thoughts on these solutions to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the candidates' programming thinking.
In addition, technical interviewers can also ask candidates about past or recent learning planning and implementation of technology to assess whether candidates have sufficient interest and ability to learn technology.
Through the above-mentioned recruitment process, we can accurately judge the candidates' mastery of the Java language and development framework, and examine their ability to solve problems. In the next article, we will continue to share with you more recruitment skills for back-end positions, so stay tuned!