Actor Developer Hiring Guide

Hiring Guide for Actor Engineers

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

The Actor computer software programming language, developed by Charles Duff in the 1980s, is a pioneering example of object-oriented programming. It was designed to facilitate concurrent computing and simplify the creation of interactive graphical user interfaces. The language's name derives from its use of "actors", independent entities that communicate via message passing - a model coined by Carl Hewitt in 1973. Actor was implemented on Lisp machines at MIT and influenced subsequent languages like Erlang and Scala. Its development has been documented extensively in academic papers published through ACM Digital Library.

First 20 minutes

General Actor knowledge and experience

The next 20 minutes of the interview should attempt to focus more specifically on the development questions used, and the level of depth and skill the engineer possesses.

Describe the difference between Actor Model and Object-Oriented Programming.

In Object-Oriented Programming, objects communicate by invoking methods, while in the Actor Model, actors communicate by sending messages. Also, the Actor Model has built-in support for concurrency and distribution, which is not the case with traditional Object-Oriented Programming.

What is the role of messages in the Actor Model?

Messages in the Actor Model are the primary means of communication between actors. Actors communicate by sending and receiving messages.

How would you handle failure in the Actor Model?

In the Actor Model, failure is handled by supervisors. A supervisor is an actor whose job is to monitor other actors and decide what to do if they fail.

What are the main components of the Actor Model?

The main components of the Actor Model are actors, messages, and mailboxes. Actors are the primitive units of computation, messages are the information that actors send to each other, and mailboxes are where actors receive their messages.

Can you explain what Actor Model is?

Actor Model is a conceptual model to deal with concurrent computation. It defines some general rules for how the system's components should behave and interact with each other.

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What youre looking for early-on

Has the candidate demonstrated the ability to work well in a team?

Acting often involves working closely with other actors, directors, and crew members, so it's important that they can work well in a team.

Does the candidate show a passion for acting and a dedication to improving their craft?

This indicates that the candidate will be motivated to perform their best and continue to develop their skills.

Does the candidate have good communication skills?

Good communication skills are essential for an actor to effectively convey the emotions and intentions of their character.

Is the candidate able to handle criticism and feedback well?

This is crucial in the acting industry, as they will often receive feedback and criticism from directors and other actors.

Does the candidate show creativity and imagination?

These are essential qualities for an actor, as they will often need to interpret scripts and characters in unique ways.

Has the candidate demonstrated a strong understanding of acting techniques and methods?

This is important as it shows the candidate's technical knowledge and ability to perform various acting roles.

Next 20 minutes

Specific Actor development questions

The next 20 minutes of the interview should attempt to focus more specifically on the development questions used, and the level of depth and skill the engineer possesses.

How would you implement an actor system in Scala?

In Scala, an actor system can be implemented using the Akka library, which provides a Scala API for creating and managing actors.

What is the difference between a thread and an actor?

A thread is a low-level construct provided by the operating system, while an actor is a higher-level abstraction provided by the Actor Model. Actors are much lighter weight than threads, and it's possible to have millions of actors in a single system.

What is the role of a mailbox in the Actor Model?

In the Actor Model, a mailbox is where an actor receives its messages. The actor processes the messages in its mailbox one at a time, in the order they were received.

How would you implement an Actor in Java?

In Java, an Actor can be implemented using the Akka framework, which provides a Java API for creating and managing actors.

What are the benefits of using the Actor Model?

The Actor Model provides a high level of abstraction for dealing with concurrency and distributed computing, which can make development easier and more efficient. It also provides strong guarantees about the order of message processing, which can simplify reasoning about concurrent systems.

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The ideal back-end app developer

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

At this point, the candidate should have shown strong communication skills, creative problem-solving abilities and deep understanding of performance techniques. Red flags could include lack of teamwork, inability to take direction well or lack of knowledge about the acting industry.

Digging deeper

Code questions

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

What does this simple JSON object represent?

{ 'name': 'John Doe', 'age': 30, 'city': 'New York' }

This code represents a JSON object with three properties: name, age, and city. The values of these properties are 'John Doe', 30, and 'New York' respectively.

What will be the output of this JSON.parse() method?

JSON.parse('{ "name":"John", "age":30, "city":"New York" }')

The output will be a JavaScript object with properties name, age, and city. The values of these properties are 'John', 30, and 'New York' respectively.

What does this JSON array manipulation do?

{ 'actors': [ { 'name': 'John Doe', 'age': 30 }, { 'name': 'Jane Doe', 'age': 25 } ] }

This code represents a JSON object with a property 'actors' which is an array of objects. Each object in the array represents an actor with properties name and age.

What does this JSON object with nested arrays represent?

{ 'name': 'John Doe', 'movies': [ { 'title': 'Movie 1', 'year': 2000 }, { 'title': 'Movie 2', 'year': 2005 } ] }

This code represents a JSON object with two properties: name and movies. The name property is a string representing the name of an actor. The movies property is an array of objects, each representing a movie with properties title and year.

What does this JSON object with nested objects represent?

{ 'actor': { 'name': 'John Doe', 'age': 30, 'agent': { 'name': 'Agent Smith', 'agency': 'Top Agency' } } }

This code represents a JSON object with a property 'actor' which is another object. The 'actor' object has properties name, age, and 'agent'. The 'agent' property is another object with properties name and agency.

What will be the output of this JSON.stringify() method?

JSON.stringify({ name: 'John', age: 30, city: 'New York' })

The output will be a string representation of the JavaScript object in JSON format: '{"name":"John","age":30,"city":"New York"}'.

Wrap-up questions

Final candidate for Actor role questions

The final few interview questions for a Actor candidate should typically focus on a combination of technical skills, personal goals, growth potential, team dynamics, and company culture.

What is the difference between synchronous and asynchronous messaging in the Actor Model?

In synchronous messaging, the sender waits for the receiver to process the message before continuing. In asynchronous messaging, the sender sends the message and then continues without waiting for the receiver to process the message. The Actor Model uses asynchronous messaging, which allows for high concurrency and non-blocking communication between actors.

How would you implement a distributed actor system?

A distributed actor system can be implemented using a framework like Akka, which provides support for creating and managing actors across multiple machines.

What is the difference between a process and an actor?

A process is a running instance of a program, while an actor is a computational entity in the Actor Model. Each actor has its own private state and behavior, and communicates with other actors by sending and receiving messages.

How would you handle state in the Actor Model?

In the Actor Model, state is encapsulated within actors. Each actor has its own private state, which can only be accessed by the actor itself. This makes it easier to reason about state and avoid race conditions.

What are the limitations of the Actor Model?

One limitation of the Actor Model is that it can be difficult to enforce consistency across actors, especially in a distributed system. Another limitation is that it can be difficult to reason about the behavior of a system of actors, especially when they interact in complex ways.

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Actor application related

Product Perfect's Actor development capabilities

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