Timeline for In an interview, is it self-defeating to say you use Stack Overflow to find errors in code?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
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| Nov 17, 2019 at 19:08 | comment | added | Spidey | Although this answer is pretty complete, it missed the most important approach in my opinion, which is actual debugging with a debugger. I'm seeing too many devs, specially in my niche of embedded devices where setting up debuggers is not trivial, who rely on logs and asking, when stepping through code would help incredibly. | |
| Nov 15, 2019 at 15:19 | comment | added | FreeMan | @Arluin if only everyone put so much effort into their SO questions... | |
| Nov 15, 2019 at 8:54 | comment | added | Tero Lahtinen | As a former project manager, my constant problem was not that developers don't do enough debugging themselves, it was that they do too much, potentially wasting a lot of time. Often the problem could be solved much faster if you ask for help. Having said that, naturally asking help from SO should never be the first, and certainly not the only, thing to do. | |
| Nov 14, 2019 at 22:47 | comment | added | TimothyAWiseman | @Kat Ok, I agree with that. I took it to mean searching SO. | |
| Nov 14, 2019 at 22:12 | comment | added | Arluin | Usually isolating/formatting/explaining a problem to present to SO points out what my problem actually is, which I can then fix - even before submitting it to SO. | |
| Nov 14, 2019 at 22:11 | comment | added | Kat | @TimothyAWiseman it's one thing to search SO as a first step, but asking a question on SO should never be your first instinct. | |
| Nov 14, 2019 at 17:01 | comment | added | TimothyAWiseman | I agree with the vast majority of this, but I'm not sure I agree that having SO as the first option is a deal breaker. SO was never my first move upon getting stuck, but it came early and I wouldn't fault another developer who did start with it. I would have issues with a developer that had it as their only recourse. | |
| Nov 14, 2019 at 0:57 | comment | added | Qwertie | Searching SO is perfect for a first option when the question you have is "What does this error message mean". Sometimes the answer online will directly give you the solution and sometimes it will give you enough information to go back to the problem understanding what happened. | |
| Nov 12, 2019 at 18:19 | comment | added | David | Searching for a solution on Stack or similar makes sense as you can often find a peer reviewed solution to a common problem; however, it's also important you research the suggested solution to make sure it is appropriate. How you do that research could be a part of the answer. | |
| Nov 12, 2019 at 15:01 | comment | added | dwizum | I upvoted this because it hints at the underlying criteria the interviewer is likely using to evaluate answers. There's a balance in troubleshooting techniques. On the one hand, interviewers don't want someone so reliant on outside help that they can't think for themselves. On the other hand, they also don't want someone who is so headstrong and independent that they waste time striving to figure everything out on their own, when there may be quick help available from others. There's nothing wrong with saying that you'd ask for help online, but you need to put it in context. | |
| Nov 12, 2019 at 9:26 | history | answered | Fiora the Ferret | CC BY-SA 4.0 |