jason brimhall (6/18/2009)
Two bitsI like to throw in some good code and bad code samples. You pick out which one works better and tell me why. Or I will just give them some bad code and have them fix it. Amazing how efficient this is at separating the talent.
I also like to ask about set based v RBAR (thx Jeff Moden) to see if they understand the concept of using batches in SQL.
Yeah, I love using a white board to do interviews (after the screening) where I'll put up structures & queries, some good, some bad, and make people walk me through them. Then I'll have them fix the bad stuff (where I put all sorts of odd stuff, it's fun), write their own queries, discuss the engine... I love interviews. I HATE screening before the interviews. We'll screen about 20 people for each one we interview. Legally we're required to ask everyone the same question. So even when someone doesn't have a clue, isn't even remotely qualified, is arguing with us about the answers to the questions or the applicability of the questions (why, oh why, do people think we need to program SQL Server code as if we were going to bounce it to DB2 tomorrow, Sybase next week, Oracle the week after that, and then back to SQL Server for a day or three?), we can't stop asking until we've gone through all 10. Pain doesn't begin to describe it.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning