Hiring guide for Elixir Lists Engineers

Elixir Lists Developer Hiring Guide

Elixir Lists is a dynamic, functional programming language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications. It was developed by José Valim in 2011, with a design philosophy focused on tooling and concurrency. Elixir Lists runs on the Erlang virtual machine (BEAM), which provides it with high concurrency, fault-tolerance, and distributed computing capabilities. The language is widely used in web development and embedded systems due to its robustness and efficiency. Its syntax is inspired by Ruby, but its semantics are a strong departure, making it a unique addition to the field of programming languages.

Ask the right questions secure the right Elixir Lists talent among an increasingly shrinking pool of talent.

First 20 minutes

General Elixir Lists app knowledge and experience

The first 20 minutes of the interview should seek to understand the candidate's general background in Elixir Lists application development, including their experience with various programming languages, databases, and their approach to designing scalable and maintainable systems.

What are the basic data types in Elixir?
The basic data types in Elixir are integers, floats, booleans, atoms, strings, lists, and tuples.
How would you create a list in Elixir?
You can create a list in Elixir using square brackets. For example: my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
What is the difference between a list and a tuple in Elixir?
Lists are stored in memory as linked lists, meaning each element holds its value and points to the following element until the end of the list. Tuples, on the other hand, are stored contiguously in memory. This means accessing an element by index or getting the tuple size is a fast operation.
How would you add an element to a list in Elixir?
You can add an element to a list in Elixir using the ++ operator. For example: my_list = [1, 2, 3] ++ [4].
How would you remove duplicates from a list in Elixir?
You can remove duplicates from a list in Elixir using the Enum.uniq function. For example: Enum.uniq([1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3]).
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What you’re looking for early on

Does the candidate have a solid understanding of Elixir Lists?
Has the candidate demonstrated problem-solving skills?
Does the candidate have experience with other relevant technologies?
Has the candidate shown that they can work well in a team?

Next 20 minutes

Specific Elixir Lists development questions

The next 20 minutes of the interview should focus on the candidate's expertise with specific backend frameworks, their understanding of RESTful APIs, and their experience in handling data storage and retrieval efficiently.

How would you concatenate two lists in Elixir?
You can concatenate two lists in Elixir using the ++ operator. For example: list1 = [1, 2, 3], list2 = [4, 5, 6], result = list1 ++ list2.
How would you find the length of a list in Elixir?
You can find the length of a list in Elixir using the length function. For example: length([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]).
What is the difference between the functions map and reduce in Elixir?
The map function transforms each item in a collection into something else, resulting in a new collection. The reduce function, on the other hand, takes a collection and reduces it to a single value.
How would you sort a list in Elixir?
You can sort a list in Elixir using the Enum.sort function. For example: Enum.sort([5, 3, 4, 1, 2]).
How would you reverse a list in Elixir?
You can reverse a list in Elixir using the Enum.reverse function. For example: Enum.reverse([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]).
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The ideal back-end app developer

What you’re looking to see on the Elixir Lists engineer at this point.

At this point, a skilled Elixir Lists engineer should demonstrate strong problem-solving abilities, proficiency in Elixir Lists programming language, and knowledge of software development methodologies. Red flags include lack of hands-on experience, inability to articulate complex concepts, or unfamiliarity with standard coding practices.

Digging deeper

Code questions

These will help you see the candidate's real-world development capabilities with Elixir Lists.

What does the following Elixir code do?
list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Enum.map(list, fn x -> x * 2 end)
This code multiplies each element in the list by 2. The result is a new list with the elements [2, 4, 6, 8, 10].
What will be the output of the following Elixir code?
IO.puts(Enum.at([:a, :b, :c, :d, :e], 3))
This code will output ':d'. The Enum.at function is used to get the element at the specified index in the list. Indexing starts from 0.
What does the following Elixir code do?
list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Enum.reduce(list, 0, fn x, acc -> x + acc end)
This code sums up all the elements in the list. The reduce function is used to accumulate a value for the list. The initial value of the accumulator is 0.
What does the following Elixir code do?
spawn(fn -> 1 + 2 end)
This code spawns a new process that executes the function. The function simply adds 1 and 2. However, the result of the function is not used or returned anywhere.

Wrap-up questions

Final candidate for Elixir Lists Developer role questions

The final few questions should evaluate the candidate's teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills. Additionally, assess their knowledge of microservices architecture, serverless computing, and how they handle Elixir Lists application deployments. Inquire about their experience in handling system failures and their approach to debugging and troubleshooting.

How would you filter a list in Elixir?
You can filter a list in Elixir using the Enum.filter function. For example: Enum.filter([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], fn x -> rem(x, 2) == 0 end).
What are the differences between Enum and Stream modules in Elixir?
The Enum module in Elixir is eager: it immediately processes its data. The Stream module, on the other hand, is lazy: it composes operations together and executes them only when necessary.
How would you convert a list to a string in Elixir?
You can convert a list to a string in Elixir using the Enum.join function. For example: Enum.join(["Hello", "world"], " ").

Elixir Lists application related

Product Perfect's Elixir Lists development capabilities

Beyond hiring for your Elixir Lists engineering team, you may be in the market for additional help. Product Perfect provides seasoned expertise in Elixir Lists projects, and can engage in multiple capacities.