What is a true software engineer? It’s not a pussy or somebody that get scared by a simple interview. A software engineer is not a scientist, so if he/she fails the interview then it is his/her fault unless the interview is about to remember things. An engineer, in general, is not a code monkey, an engineer must know how to deal with problems, AFTER ALL, it is when an engineer shines.
For example, let’s say that we want to hire a Java Expert.

Question 1:

• What IDE do you use?. If say: Eclipse, Netbeans, IntelliJ, then it is a seasoned one. If he/she don’t know, then it’s time to end the interview. This test could be cheated?. Yep, but let’s do the next question. Also, it is not for tests if the candidate knows the tool but about the passion. For example, if you talk with a good carpenter, then he will love his tools, and he could write an entire book about it.

Question 2:

• Now about your experience, can you tell me about your worst client?. If he/she answers with flowers and everything was fine and cool, then he could be a liar, and nobody would want a liar. Here, we want to see blood.

Question 3:

• And now, let’s say that we are using the library ePandaNet, how can you generate a report using it from the database?. Note: The library ePandaNet doesn’t exist, and it is to test the honesty and how the engineer will solve an unsolvable problem (The Kobayashi Maru test).

5–15 minutes top and we can generate a full profile of the candidate.

But I don’t think we need to do several rounds, it is a waste of resource and time.

In my case, (project in Chief), HR has failed me so many times that I lost faith in them.