I would expect a senior engineer working on Web technologies to be at least familiar enough with what both Java and Rails are to be able to start that conversation.
It doesn’t require an in-depth knowledge of either, but this question would serve as a great way to get a basic level of an applicants knowledge.
Meanwhile I could easily imagine a senior web developer with 15 years of programming experience having used JS, Python, Perl, PHP, ASP.NET, and a dozen non-web languages but never a single line of Ruby or Java.
I have never used either Perl
Or ASP.NET. I would be comfortable talking about the difference between them at a high level regardless. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to
expect a senior developer to be familiar with the tools that are used in the trade generally, even if they have not used those tools themselves.
I honestly think that talking about some tools someone never needed is a terrible way to get the feel for a basic level of that applicant's knowledge. And it really doesn't tell you anything about them as a programmer. I think even fizzbuzz and linked list reversal would be more telling, and that's not much.
Going by the translator analogy, I feel like it's asking say an Asian translator (who might command a few eastern languages with decades of solid experience) who never studied English and French to talk about English and French. Because in your world everyone skilled translator knows enough about English and French to at least have a useful conversation about them. It smells very elitistic. And pointless.
We'll just have to disagree on this one, I'm afraid.
I would consider it a necessary job requirement for a senior developer to know about common technologies in the field they are working in. If that meant working on web applications, I would expect them to know what both Rails and Java are. I don't need them to be able to program in them; I need them to know what they are, why they exist, some of the key facts about them, where they might most commonly be used, that sort of thing.
Over-specialisation to the extent that developers are unaware of technologies outside of their direct knowledge is a warning sign about a developer's skillset, to me. How can I trust that a developer is picking the correct tool for a job if they aren't aware of what tools are available?
It's possible to be aware that certain tools exist and have an idea about what they're used for, and yet know little enough about them to butt into a discussion and give any sort of fruitful, educated opinion about them.
My imaginary senior web developer knows more than a dozen languages. It is almost a given that one of these languages is technically sound and a reasonable choice for a given task, and that developer should be able to pick that language just fine. However, if there are other compelling reasons to look into other languages (for example because company wants cheap coders and think there's a large pool of cheap talent skilled in language X, or because the company needs to leverage the ecosystem surrounding language Y), that same senior developer is more than capable of doing a bit of research and evaluating these languages.
You almost sound like one of these interviewers who think that a programmer who can't implement a red-black tree off the top of his head and state its worst case insertion complexity couldn't possibly be capable of looking it up and evaluating the relative merits of different data structures -- and thus cannot be trusted to any position where he might have to pick an algorithm. Nevermind if he could implement two dozen other data structures in his sleep.
Over-specialization? Seriously? A programmer who's used more than a dozen programming languages is over-specialized because he can't discuss the two you want to talk about? The stench of elitism is only getting stronger here. You're assuming the worst of a programmer because his world doesn't revolve around the same things yours does, and you are assuming that despite their experience they probably will not try to or cannot educate themselves further.
Unfortunately I see this sort of prejudiced attitude everywhere... "I think this is important so if you don't know this, you can't possibly be any good." Such statements reveal a rather narrow world view.
Less of the personal attacks, please. I think I'm discussing this in good faith.
It's possible to be aware that certain tools exist and have an idea about what they're used for, and yet know little enough about them to butt into a discussion and give any sort of fruitful, educated opinion about them.
Yes, that's probably true. If that were the case, I would expect an answer like "I don't know anything those beyond the fact that it's a cross-platform language that runs on a virtual machine and Rails is a framework for Ruby. But I do know a lot of Python and Go, which have some similar characteristics. We could talk about the general difference between compiled and interpreted languages?"
These questions serve as entry points. I'm not expecting a developer who doesn't use these tools to have an in-depth knowledge of how everything works, but if the question kills the interview to the point where someone is unable to move forward then that is a warning sign.
You almost sound like one of these interviewers who think that a programmer who can't implement a red-black tree off the top of his head...
No. I absolutely would not expect that, and those questions are stupid. I would expect a senior developer to know what a tree is, and maybe what a red-black tree is. I would expect them to know what operations can commonly be done on a tree, or what use-cases they might have. I would expect them to be able to, say, contrast a tree with a hash table. If a developer said, however, "I have never used a tree or a hash table and have no idea what you are talking about" then I would also consider that to be a warning sign. Do you see the similarity?
Over-specialization? Seriously? A programmer who's used more than a dozen programming languages is over-specialized because he can't discuss the two you want to talk about? The stench of elitism is only getting stronger here. You're assuming the worst of a programmer because his world doesn't revolve around the same things yours does, and you are assuming that despite their experience they probably will not try to or cannot educate themselves further.
You are misrepresenting my view; see above for more details. I do not think it is elitist to expect people in senior roles to know about common tools used in that role. I would not expect them to be specialists, but I would expect them to understand the state of the field and be able to discuss that. I mean, we're not talking about obscure technologies here!
Unfortunately I see this sort of prejudiced attitude everywhere... "I think this is important so if you don't know this, you can't possibly be any good." Such statements reveal a rather narrow world view.
That is an unfortunate misrepresentation of my view, so I'm sorry if I've failed to communicate it effectively. I guess from what you've said above that you think I'd place much more weight on the technical content of that answer than I would in practice.
Perhaps I have misinterpreted you or read too much into what you said. I'm sorry if my response came across as a personal attack.
All these threads about interviewing over the years have definitely left me with a bitter taste, mainly due to all the people who think they're clever and have figured out the most important thing, that one thing by which all applicants' worth can be tested.. if they just know about this one little thing. And in doing so, they effectively trivialize the software industry as a whole, failing to realize just how wide and deep it is, completely oblivious to how different developers with up to two decades of experience even in the same subfield may have walked rather different yet fruitful paths.
It doesn’t require an in-depth knowledge of either, but this question would serve as a great way to get a basic level of an applicants knowledge.