Interviewing a Java Developer? Ask these questions.
As Warren Buffett revealed in his hiring criteria: “When hiring, look for Integrity, Passion, and Intelligence. If the person does not have first, the other two will kill you.”
Java is the second most used programming language in the world according to PYPL. For a programming language that is so popular, one would assume that finding talented Java developers for their projects would be an easy job, but the reality is a little different. While it is true that the talent pool of Java developers is more abundant than other lesser used programming languages, most hiring managers face difficulties recruiting suitable candidates for a myriad of reasons.
Meaningful interviews ensure that the right developers come on board for the right job. Finding the right fit is crucial to achieving the objectives of your company while at the same time maintaining a healthy work culture.
Organizations that invest the right amount of time in their recruitment, or select an experience IT staffing partner, often succeed with their short and long term objectives by hiring java developers who are the right fit for their organization. At Cubic IT, we focus on helping companies build their hiring strategies around the right people, with the right skills, who desire to work in the right place, at the right time, and at the right cost.
• Right People
Finding the right people for your software development team means understanding what kind of person would potentially work well inside your team from a cultural perspective.
• Right Skills
Your java developer needs to have the right skill set. While many recruiters tend to spend 6 seconds on a resume to skim through it and find the relevant information. It still does not guarantee that the candidate has the right technical skills for the projects you are working on.
• Right Place
It is essential to ensure that recruitment efforts are focused on the right development teams, especially if you are a larger organization with multiple teams working on multiple projects across several locations. Managers of large organizations should develop a KPI matrix to see if specific locations and their respective teams are failing to meet timelines consistently. A well organized KPI matrix will help to identify if a particular team is consistently failing to meet deadlines.
• Right Time
Is it the right time to hire more developers? Or, do your current teams need to be managed more effectively. Many times, software development teams get behind on projects and automatically assume they need more developers on the team. When, in actuality, they just need to manage their current projects better.
• Right Cost
Sourcing qualified Java developers can be expensive. Forecasting the right budget for sourcing, on-boarding, and training candidates who are an excellent fit for your team can be challenging. A strong staffing partner can help managers gain insight into what resources should be required to prevent project costs from exceeding their budgets.
Now that we have a thorough understanding of the foundational elements to a strong recruitment strategy. Let’s dive into the Java Programming Language and go over interview tips that would help you gain a better understanding of your interviewees' skill sets.
Interview Types
Many types of interview techniques exist to help managers quickly identify the right candidates. However, there is no one-size-fits-all. You should consider mixing up interview techniques to test candidates on their strengths and weaknesses. Here are a few examples of different types of interviews:
• Structured Interviews
• Unstructured Interviews
• Behavioral Interviews
• Stress Interview
• Problem Solving Interview
• Panel Interview
HR Interviews:
If we follow the big tech giants, we realize that it is mostly the job of Human Resources to source candidates and interview them. The first interview is often structured and contains a mix of technical and behavioral Interview questions.
Relevancy:
To discover if a software developer has relevant experience, you will need to know if their background is relevant to the work your team is doing. Don't merely look at a resume to make sure the buzzwords match up. Take it a step further and ask open-ended questions like: “These are the kinds of projects we are currently working on, can you walk me through your previous positions and help me understand how your experience can be applied to this project?
Cultural Fit:
We talk a lot about cultural fit at Cubic IT for one very important reason. Even a group of extremely talented developers can still fail to deliver if they can't work together. When discussing working styles, watch out for candidates who bluntly say they work better on their own. These kinds of comments can be a red flag and can let you know if a candidate is not a team player.
Personal Goals:
It is essential to ask a find out if the candidate's professional objectives align with your company's goals. Many candidates do not want to learn other programming languages because it does not line up with their vision of the future. Ask questions like: "Where do you see yourself in five years?" and "what are your short and long-term career objectives?"
Change Management:
The tech industry requires all of us to improve ourselves to stay current and thrive. Ask your candidates: "How have you had to reinvent your job in light of your organization’s changing needs?"
Technical Interviews:
Once your recruiter has completed their cultural assessments, your development managers should take over and begin a technical assessment to define their technical skills and ability to create applications with Java. Development managers often carry out Unstructured Interview techniques to find out how the candidate would respond to critical situations and tight deadlines. Stick with open-ended questions to see the creativity of each candidate.
General Questions:
● How do you prefer getting your job done, are you focused or like to take your time on finishing your tasks?
● What are the current Java projects you are working on?
● Are you open to constructive criticism?
● How will you explain your typical day in the office?
● What does your perfect workday look like?
● Why do you want to work with us, what do you know about our organization?
● How do you deal with stressful deadlines? Give an example.
When reading the resume of a Java Developer, look for proof that your candidates:
✔ Understand the basic architecture of Java Programming.
✔ Translate application storyboards and cases into functional applications.
✔ Design, build and maintain efficient and reliable Java code.
✔ Ensure the responsiveness and performance of the application.
✔ Identify bugs and rectify them with Java Programming.
✔ Keep the standards high and make proper comments.
✔ Use of Patterns, the latest API classes and interfaces and methods.
Skills Required:
MVC Framework like JSF, Play Framework or Spring Framework
Hibernate of JPA for Databases
Architectural Patterns and Java Libraries
Object-Oriented Programming
Concurrency Patterns
Java GUI Frameworks
Build Tool Ant and Maven
AJAX and JVM
Java Scripting API
Data Structures
Questions:
1. Explain Java Development Kit (JDK), Java Runtime Environment (JRT) and Java Virtual Machine (JVM)?
2. What is your understanding of Public, Static, Void, Main and String Args []?
3. Why Java is platform independent and why not it’s completely object-oriented?
4. Explain the classes and constructors in Java.
5. Do you know the difference between an Array list and Vector?
6. What is the difference between Heap and Stack? What are they?
7. What is Polymorphism?
8. Difference between Abstract Class and Interfaces?
9. What is the between Overloading and overriding?
10. What is multiple inheritance, association, aggregation, and Composition in Java?
11. What is Servlets? Please explain Get and Post methods?
12. What is request dispatcher? Please explain Forward () and SendDirect() Method.
13. What is the life cycle of Servlet?
14. What are JDBC Drivers? What are its types?
15. What is JDBC Driver Manager, API Components and Metadata Interface?
16. What is Spring Framework and explain some annotations of Spring configuration?
17. Difference between Constructor and Setter Injection?
18. What is auto writing in spring, how to handle exceptions in Spring MVC Framework?
19. What is Hibernate Framework? How to integrate Spring and Hibernate Framework?
20. What are the benefits of Hibernate framework, explain its architecture?
21. What are the life-cycle methods of JSP?
22. Explain JSP Implicit Objects.
23. What is the difference between Error and Exception? How many exceptions do you know and their methods?
24. What is the difference between Throw and Throws & Process and Thread?
25. What is synchronization?