"What's the output" questions are mostly awful

Question

Am I the only one that thinks these questions are awful?
I mean they are usually just examples of badly written and structured code, they don't knowledge they test your patencie.

int a=7,b=2,c;
c=a++ - b%2 --b ++a *10/7;
Like wtf I'm not going to solve this abomination.
I'd rather have realistic code examples or challenges where you have to write code shorter and more efficient.

Answer 1

Well actually speaking guess the output kinda questions appear in aptitude tests of many software companies. So its not really bad.
What i dont like is the fill in the blank types because you can write the same type of code in different ways. So if you write i++ instead of i+1 it gives you wrong and its just not acceptable cuz both are correct.

Answer 2

Actually, it's often the kind of questions that companies like Microsoft ask in an interview. I know this from friends who were interviewed after scoring high in certifications like Brainbench.

Answer 3

@Leon, are you from the UK? A levels are what is before university there if I remember correctly.

Answer 4

@Leon, it isn't worthless. Well, if you don't have straight A's you can forget about applying for MS.

Answer 5

I absolutely hate the indeterminate C++ questions where you're given something like:

int a = 1;
a = a++ + ++a;
// untested it may be the perfectly logical Java equivalent but is likely undefined.

All the advice from stack overflow indicates the answers are indeterminate. It puts me, and many others, off the c++ challenges. Learning non deterministic answers to the wrong way of doing things, I should hope gets these challenges reported.

I write a lot of guess the output questions, mostly as MCQs, please don't tar us all with your brush!

Answer 6

Helio, round these parts Microsoft requires 360+ UCAS points, like 3 A level A Levels. I suppose this helps ensure only Ivy Leaguers apply (Russell Group, round these parts)

Answer 7

If someone at a job interview would give me code like this I'd say they should fire their programmer and give me his job.

But yeah I use this app to learn code not prepare for assessment centers. And by reading terrible code you don't learn good coding.
Also most of these questions are purely badly structured math problems with a super short time limit (is it the same everytime or how is it calculated?).
I mean the code part could be left out most problems are basically
y = f(x)
no need for code.

Answer 8

Yeah I agree. I quit challenges for some time due to this reason. Like hey, let's give you a stupid, awful and completely unneeded equation and a time limit to solve it. Like jesus people, stop creating math problems and start creating code problems.

Answer 9

An example for a nice code problem would be something like having two pointers with the same value and then comparing the addresses.
So you need to know how pointers work.
If you cant write actuall code problems then don't write them at all.

Answer 10

I totally agree with you. There are useless and anoying. I think approvers should not alowed that kind of questions. Especially when there are too complex loops or too much variables with calculated values.

Answer 11

Error:In code 'a++ -'