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

AWK is a versatile programming language created in 1977 by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan at Bell Labs. Named after its creators' initials, AWK is primarily used for pattern scanning and processing. It is a standard feature of most Unix-like operating systems, including Linux and macOS. The language's design is centered around data-driven scripting and its syntax is influenced by C programming language. Its original purpose was to make data manipulation easier, and it continues to be widely used for this purpose today.

First 20 minutes

General AWK 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.

What are the built-in variables in AWK?

Some of the built-in variables in AWK include FS (field separator), OFS (output field separator), NF (number of fields), NR (number of records), and FILENAME (current input file name).

How would you use AWK to extract specific fields from a text file?

You can use the -F option in AWK to specify the field separator and then print the fields you want. For example, 'awk -F':' '{ print $1 $2 }' file.txt' would print the first and second field of each line in file.txt.

Describe the difference between AWK and other scripting languages like Python or Perl.

AWK is specifically designed for text processing and report generating, while Python and Perl are general-purpose scripting languages. AWK is simpler and easier to learn than Python or Perl.

What are the uses of AWK?

AWK is used for text processing, data extraction and reporting, string manipulation, and generating formatted reports.

How would you define AWK?

AWK is a powerful text processing language that is used for data manipulation. It is a standard feature of most Unix-like operating systems.

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What youre looking for early-on

Is the candidate able to explain complex AWK concepts in a simple way?

This indicates a deep understanding of AWK. It's also important for collaboration, as they may need to explain their work to non-technical colleagues.

Does the candidate show a willingness to learn and adapt?

The tech field is always evolving. The candidate must be open to learning new technologies and adapting to changes.

Can the candidate work effectively in a team?

Even though the role is technical, interpersonal skills are still important. They must be able to communicate and collaborate with other team members.

How well does the candidate understand data manipulation with AWK?

AWK is often used for data manipulation. The candidate must be comfortable with tasks like parsing, analyzing, and reporting data.

Is the candidate able to solve problems using AWK?

Problem-solving skills are important in programming. Being able to use AWK to solve problems indicates a practical understanding of the language.

Does the candidate demonstrate a strong understanding of AWK programming language?

This is crucial as it is the primary skill required for the role. They must be able to understand and write AWK scripts effectively.

Next 20 minutes

Specific AWK 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 use AWK to process a CSV file?

You can use the -F option in AWK to specify the comma as the field separator. For example, 'awk -F',' '{ print $1 $2 }' file.csv' would print the first and second field of each line in file.csv.

Describe the difference between the getline function and the next statement in AWK.

The getline function in AWK reads the next record from the input, while the next statement forces AWK to immediately stop processing the current record and go on to the next record.

What are the control flow statements in AWK?

Control flow statements in AWK include if, else, while, do while, for, break, continue, and exit.

How would you use AWK to perform arithmetic operations?

You can use AWK to perform arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, modulus, and exponentiation. For example, 'awk '{ print $1+$2 }' file.txt' would add the values of the first and second fields of each line in file.txt.

Describe the difference between NR and FNR in AWK.

NR and FNR are both built-in variables in AWK. NR gives the total number of records processed whereas FNR gives the number of records processed in the current file.

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At this point, a skilled AWK engineer should demonstrate proficiency in text processing and pattern scanning language, ability to write complex AWK scripts, and familiarity with UNIX/Linux environments. Red flags include difficulty in explaining concepts or processes, lack of practical experience, or inability to solve problems.

Digging deeper

Code questions

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

What does this simple AWK command do: 'awk '{print $1}' file.txt'?awk '{print $1}' file.txt
This command prints the first field of each line in the file 'file.txt'. AWK considers a space as the default field separator.
What will be the output of this AWK command: 'echo 'Hello World' | awk '{print $2}'?echo 'Hello World' | awk '{print $2}'
The output will be 'World'. The AWK command prints the second field of the input string 'Hello World'.
What does this AWK command do: 'awk 'BEGIN {FS=","} ; {print $1}' file.csv'?awk 'BEGIN {FS=","} ; {print $1}' file.csv
This command prints the first field of each line in the file 'file.csv', considering comma as the field separator.
What does this AWK command do: 'awk 'BEGIN {i=1} {print i, $0; i++}' file.txt'?awk 'BEGIN {i=1} {print i, $0; i++}' file.txt
This command prints each line in 'file.txt' preceded by its line number. The variable 'i' is initialized to 1 and incremented for each line.
What does this AWK command do: 'awk 'NF > 4' file.txt'?awk 'NF > 4' file.txt
This command prints all lines in 'file.txt' that have more than 4 fields. 'NF' is a built-in variable in AWK that holds the number of fields in a record.
What does this AWK command do: 'awk 'BEGIN {for(i=1;i<=5;i++) print i}'?awk 'BEGIN {for(i=1;i<=5;i++) print i}'
This command prints the numbers 1 to 5. It uses a for loop to iterate from 1 to 5 and prints the value of 'i' in each iteration.

Wrap-up questions

Final candidate for AWK role questions

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

Describe the difference between one-dimensional and multi-dimensional arrays in AWK.

One-dimensional arrays in AWK have a single index, while multi-dimensional arrays have multiple indices. However, AWK internally treats multi-dimensional arrays as one-dimensional arrays by concatenating the indices.

What are the array operations in AWK?

AWK provides several array operations like assigning values, accessing values, deleting elements, and looping through elements.

How would you use AWK to process a file line by line?

By default, AWK processes a file line by line. You can specify the actions to be performed on each line within curly braces. For example, 'awk '{ print $0 }' file.txt' would print each line of file.txt.

Describe the difference between the gsub and sub functions in AWK.

Both gsub and sub functions in AWK are used for substitution. The difference is that gsub performs global substitution (replaces all occurrences), while sub replaces only the first occurrence.

What are the string functions in AWK?

AWK provides several string functions like length, substr, index, split, sprintf, and gsub.

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AWK application related

Product Perfect's AWK development capabilities

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

AWK Consultive assessments

AWK Application Conversion Assessment AWK Application Integration Assessment AWK Data & Database Integration Assessment

Custom AWK development projects

Custom AWK App Conversion AWK Custom App Development Process App UI Design for AWK Facelifts

AWK Developer Hiring Guide

Hiring Guide for AWK Engineers

First 20 minutes

General AWK knowledge and experience

What are the built-in variables in AWK?

How would you use AWK to extract specific fields from a text file?

Describe the difference between AWK and other scripting languages like Python or Perl.

What are the uses of AWK?

How would you define AWK?

What youre looking for early-on

Is the candidate able to explain complex AWK concepts in a simple way?

Does the candidate show a willingness to learn and adapt?

Can the candidate work effectively in a team?

How well does the candidate understand data manipulation with AWK?

Is the candidate able to solve problems using AWK?

Does the candidate demonstrate a strong understanding of AWK programming language?

Next 20 minutes

Specific AWK development questions

How would you use AWK to process a CSV file?

Describe the difference between the getline function and the next statement in AWK.

What are the control flow statements in AWK?

How would you use AWK to perform arithmetic operations?

Describe the difference between NR and FNR in AWK.

The ideal back-end app developer

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

What does this simple AWK command do: 'awk '{print $1}' file.txt'?

This command prints the first field of each line in the file 'file.txt'. AWK considers a space as the default field separator.

What will be the output of this AWK command: 'echo 'Hello World' | awk '{print $2}'?

The output will be 'World'. The AWK command prints the second field of the input string 'Hello World'.

What does this AWK command do: 'awk 'BEGIN {FS=","} ; {print $1}' file.csv'?

This command prints the first field of each line in the file 'file.csv', considering comma as the field separator.

What does this AWK command do: 'awk 'BEGIN {i=1} {print i, $0; i++}' file.txt'?

This command prints each line in 'file.txt' preceded by its line number. The variable 'i' is initialized to 1 and incremented for each line.

What does this AWK command do: 'awk 'NF > 4' file.txt'?

This command prints all lines in 'file.txt' that have more than 4 fields. 'NF' is a built-in variable in AWK that holds the number of fields in a record.

What does this AWK command do: 'awk 'BEGIN {for(i=1;i<=5;i++) print i}'?

This command prints the numbers 1 to 5. It uses a for loop to iterate from 1 to 5 and prints the value of 'i' in each iteration.

Wrap-up questions

Final candidate for AWK role questions

Describe the difference between one-dimensional and multi-dimensional arrays in AWK.

What are the array operations in AWK?

How would you use AWK to process a file line by line?

Describe the difference between the gsub and sub functions in AWK.

What are the string functions in AWK?

AWK Consultive assessments

Custom AWK development projects