Hiring guide for Malbolge Engineers

Malbolge Developer Hiring Guide

Malbolge is a public domain esoteric programming language created by Ben Olmstead in 1998, named after the eighth circle of hell in Dante's Inferno. It was specifically designed to be nearly impossible to use, as it employs cryptic and obfuscated commands. The first program written in this language wasn't crafted by a human but generated by a brute-force search algorithm. Malbolge represents an extreme point on the spectrum of programming languages due to its high level of complexity and low readability. Despite its impracticality, it has gained notoriety within certain circles for its unique characteristics (source: Wikipedia).

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

First 20 minutes

General Malbolge app knowledge and experience

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

How would you describe the structure of a Malbolge program?
A Malbolge program is made up of a series of instructions in a memory space, where each instruction is a trit (a ternary digit) in base-3 notation. The program counter starts at 0 and increments after each instruction is executed.
What are the three possible values for a trit in Malbolge?
The three possible values for a trit in Malbolge are 0, 1, and 2.
Describe the difference between a normalizing and a non-normalizing operation in Malbolge.
A normalizing operation is one that transforms the operand into a normalized form, where all trits are either 0 or 2. A non-normalizing operation does not perform this transformation.
How would you write a 'Hello, World!' program in Malbolge?
Writing a 'Hello, World!' program in Malbolge is extremely challenging due to the language's complexity and obscurity. The exact code would be a sequence of seemingly random characters.
What are the basic operations in Malbolge?
The basic operations in Malbolge are rotation, move, and branch if zero.
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What you’re looking for early on

Does the candidate have a strong understanding of Malbolge's unique syntax and operations?
Can the applicant solve complex problems using Malbolge?
Has the candidate demonstrated the ability to debug Malbolge code?
Has the candidate shown any experience with other esoteric programming languages?

Next 20 minutes

Specific Malbolge 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 handle errors in Malbolge?
Error handling in Malbolge is difficult due to its obscurity and complexity. Generally, you would need to carefully analyze the code and use trial and error to identify and fix errors.
Describe the difference between the rotation and move operations in Malbolge.
The rotation operation rotates the trits of the operand, while the move operation moves a value from one memory location to another.
What is the purpose of the crypt operator in Malbolge?
The crypt operator is used to encrypt the code, making it more difficult to understand and modify.
How would you optimize a Malbolge program?
Optimizing a Malbolge program is extremely difficult due to the language's obscurity and complexity. It would require a deep understanding of the language and a lot of trial and error.
What are the challenges of programming in Malbolge?
The main challenges of programming in Malbolge include its obscurity, complexity, and the fact that it's designed to be as difficult to program in as possible. Additionally, its operations are non-intuitive and it uses ternary instead of binary.
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The ideal back-end app developer

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

At this point, a skilled Malbolge engineer should demonstrate strong problem-solving abilities, proficiency in Malbolge 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 Malbolge.

What does this simple Malbolge program do?
(=<`#9]~6ZY32Vx/4Rs+0No-&Jk)
This is a simple Malbolge program that prints 'Hello, World!' to the console.
What does this Malbolge code do?
('&%:9]!~}|z2Vxwv-,POqponl$Hjig%eB@@>}=
This code is a Malbolge program that prints 'Farewell, World!' to the console.
What does this Malbolge code do?
(=<`#9]~6ZY32Vx/4Rs+0No-&Jk)('&%:9]!~}|z2Vxwv-,POqponl$Hjig%eB@@>}=
This code is a Malbolge program that prints 'Hello, World!' and then 'Farewell, World!' to the console.
What does this Malbolge code do?
(=<`#9]~6ZY32Vx/4Rs+0No-&Jk)('&%:9]!~}|z2Vxwv-,POqponl$Hjig%eB@@>}=
This code is a Malbolge program that prints 'Hello, World!' and then 'Farewell, World!' to the console. It demonstrates the use of multiple statements in a single program.

Wrap-up questions

Final candidate for Malbolge 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 Malbolge application deployments. Inquire about their experience in handling system failures and their approach to debugging and troubleshooting.

How would you debug a Malbolge program?
Debugging a Malbolge program is extremely difficult due to the language's complexity and obscurity. It would require a deep understanding of the language and a lot of trial and error.
Describe the difference between Malbolge and other esoteric programming languages.
Malbolge is considered one of the most difficult esoteric programming languages. Unlike other languages, it was specifically designed to be as difficult and obscure as possible.
What is the significance of the number 3 in Malbolge?
The number 3 is significant in Malbolge because it's a ternary-based language, meaning it uses base-3 instead of the more common base-2 used in binary.

Malbolge application related

Product Perfect's Malbolge development capabilities

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

Malbolge Consultive assessments

Custom Malbolge development projects

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