HACKER Q&A
📣 amichail

Can tech interviews show whether you learned programming at a young age?


By this, I mean using a subtle method that would reveal whether this is the case.


  👤 tithe Accepted Answer ✓
Why not just "So, how long have you been programming for?"

I'd interpret this question as "Does this person think I'm experienced enough for the work?" over explicitly wanting to know whether I began at a young age.


👤 alem
In a subtle way, I don't think so.

When trying to quantify such a subjective characteristic we end up with a "Wittgenstein's ruler" situation where the question tells more about how the interviewer envisions someone programming from a young age rather than the interviewee past programming history.


👤 uberman
This seems like an X/Y question. What would knowing the answer tell you about a candidate that was meaningful?

Alternatively, are you asking how to determine someone has the claimed experience to match thier CV?