This is beautiful in it's terrible-ness. I think it's safe to say I wouldn't hire anyone that produced this during an interview. It would be impossible to tell if they were mad scientist crazy or just too dense to understand the point of the interview.
1. The candidate has a solid understanding of the template system in C++. Chances are pretty high that he has a similarly high understanding of other parts (which would come out with further discussions during the interview).
2. The candidate is a creative thinker, which is hugely important in a profession where you tend to get blocked by faulty or incomplete tools, or tools not designed for what you want to do.
3. The candidate is highly intelligent and inquisitive, which means he'll likely have more success in exploratory tasks, and he'll likely have a greater breadth and possibly depth of exposure in general.
That is the advantage of face to face... It would be obvious they rejected the trivial solution, and went for something fun. I would be thinking mad scientist about 3 min in and wondering how much they are going to scare the rest of the team. Well done.
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This is beautiful in it's terrible-ness. I think it's safe to say I wouldn't hire anyone that produced this during an interview. It would be impossible to tell if they were mad scientist crazy or just too dense to understand the point of the interview.
What I would take away from this mad display:
1. The candidate has a solid understanding of the template system in C++. Chances are pretty high that he has a similarly high understanding of other parts (which would come out with further discussions during the interview).
2. The candidate is a creative thinker, which is hugely important in a profession where you tend to get blocked by faulty or incomplete tools, or tools not designed for what you want to do.
3. The candidate is highly intelligent and inquisitive, which means he'll likely have more success in exploratory tasks, and he'll likely have a greater breadth and possibly depth of exposure in general.
4. The candidate can program (of course).
5. Candidate likely has a pretty good sense of humour.
That is the advantage of face to face... It would be obvious they rejected the trivial solution, and went for something fun. I would be thinking mad scientist about 3 min in and wondering how much they are going to scare the rest of the team. Well done.