Formac Developer Hiring Guide

Hiring Guide for Formac Engineers

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

Formac, short for FORmula MAnipulation Compiler, is a computer programming language developed in the 1960s at IBM by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz (1). It was designed as an extension to the Fortran programming language to support symbolic mathematics (2). Formac was considered revolutionary for its time due to its ability to handle algebraic manipulations of mathematical formulas, which was highly beneficial for scientific computing (3). However, despite its initial popularity, it eventually fell into disuse with the advancement of other high-level languages that offered more flexibility and features. Today, Formac stands as a significant milestone in the history of computer programming languages. Sources: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FORMAC 2. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/365230.365260 3. https://www.computerhistory.org/brochures/computers-and-automation-1964-formac-programming-manual/

First 20 minutes

General Formac 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 control structures in Formac?

Formac supports several control structures, including if-else statements, switch-case statements, for loops, while loops, and do-while loops.

How would you declare an array in Formac?

In Formac, an array is declared by specifying its type, followed by its name, and then its size in square brackets. For example, 'integer arrayName[10];' declares an array of 10 integers.

Describe the difference between a constant and a variable in Formac.

In Formac, a constant is a value that doesn't change during the execution of the program, while a variable is a memory location that can hold different values at different times during the program execution.

What are the data types supported by Formac?

Formac supports several data types, including integer, real, boolean, character, and string. It also supports arrays, records, and files.

How would you describe the basic structure of a Formac program?

A Formac program is composed of statements, each of which is terminated by a semicolon. The statements are grouped into blocks, which are enclosed in curly braces. The blocks can be nested within each other. The program starts with a main block, which contains the main logic of the program.

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What youre looking for early-on

Has the candidate demonstrated an understanding of the company's needs and goals?

This shows that they have done their research and are interested in helping the company succeed, not just in getting a job.

Is the candidate showing a willingness to learn and adapt?

The tech field is always evolving, so it's important for developers to be open to learning new skills and adapting to changes.

Does the candidate have experience with similar projects or tasks?

Past experience can be a good indicator of how well they will perform in this role.

Is the candidate able to communicate effectively?

Good communication is key in a development team to ensure everyone is on the same page and to avoid misunderstandings.

Does the candidate show good problem-solving skills?

Problem-solving skills are important in software development as they will often need to troubleshoot and solve issues that arise in the development process.

Has the candidate demonstrated a strong understanding of Formac language?

This is crucial as the position requires a deep knowledge of Formac language to effectively write and debug code.

Next 20 minutes

Specific Formac 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 recursion in Formac?

In Formac, recursion can be implemented by defining a function or a procedure that calls itself. The recursive call must be controlled by a condition to prevent infinite recursion.

Describe the difference between a static and a dynamic array in Formac.

In Formac, a static array is an array whose size is fixed at compile time, while a dynamic array is an array whose size can be changed at runtime.

What are the file handling capabilities of Formac?

Formac provides several functions for file handling, including opening and closing files, reading from and writing to files, and checking the end of a file.

How would you handle exceptions in Formac?

Formac provides a try-catch mechanism to handle exceptions. The code that might throw an exception is placed inside a try block, and the code to handle the exception is placed inside a catch block.

Describe the difference between a function and a procedure in Formac.

In Formac, a function is a block of code that returns a value, while a procedure is a block of code that performs a specific task but doesn't return a value.

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The ideal back-end app developer

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

At this stage, a skilled Formac engineer should demonstrate strong problem-solving skills, technical proficiency in Formac systems, and excellent communication abilities. Red flags would include lack of direct experience with Formac systems or inability to articulate complex concepts clearly.

Digging deeper

Code questions

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

What does this simple Formac code do?

print('Hello, World!')

This code prints the string 'Hello, World!' to the console.

What will be the output of the following Formac code: x = 5, y = 10, z = x + y, print(z)?

x = 5
y = 10
z = x + y
print(z)

This code will output the number 15. It first assigns the values 5 and 10 to variables x and y respectively, then adds them together and assigns the result to variable z. Finally, it prints the value of z.

What does the following Formac code do: myList = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], print(myList.reverse())?

myList = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print(myList.reverse())

This code reverses the order of the elements in the array myList and then prints the reversed array.

What does the following Formac code do: import threading, def printNumbers(): for i in range(10): print(i), t = threading.Thread(target=printNumbers), t.start()?

import threading
def printNumbers():
  for i in range(10):
    print(i)
t = threading.Thread(target=printNumbers)
t.start()

This code creates a new thread and runs the function printNumbers in that thread. The function printNumbers prints the numbers 0 through 9.

What does the following Formac code do: class MyClass: def __init__(self, name): self.name = name, def printName(self): print(self.name), obj = MyClass('Formac'), obj.printName()?

class MyClass:
  def __init__(self, name):
    self.name = name
  def printName(self):
    print(self.name)
obj = MyClass('Formac')
obj.printName()

This code defines a class MyClass with a constructor that takes a name parameter and a method printName that prints the name. It then creates an instance of MyClass with the name 'Formac' and calls the printName method on that instance, which prints 'Formac'.

What will be the output of the following Formac code: def add(a, b): return a + b, def multiply(a, b): return a * b, print(add(5, multiply(4, 3)))?

def add(a, b):
  return a + b
def multiply(a, b):
  return a * b
print(add(5, multiply(4, 3)))

This code will output the number 17. It defines two functions, add and multiply, and then calls them in a nested way. It first multiplies 4 and 3 to get 12, then adds 5 to the result to get 17.

Wrap-up questions

Final candidate for Formac role questions

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

Describe the difference between procedural and object-oriented programming in Formac.

In Formac, procedural programming is a programming paradigm based on the concept of procedures or functions, while object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm based on the concept of objects, which are instances of classes.

What are the memory management capabilities of Formac?

Formac provides several functions for memory management, including allocating and deallocating memory, copying memory blocks, and comparing memory blocks.

How would you implement multithreading in Formac?

Formac provides a thread class that can be used to create and manage threads. Each thread runs independently and can execute a specific task concurrently with other threads.

Describe the difference between overloading and overriding in Formac.

In Formac, overloading refers to defining multiple functions or procedures with the same name but different parameters, while overriding refers to redefining a function or a procedure in a derived class that was already defined in the base class.

What are the features of object-oriented programming in Formac?

Formac supports several features of object-oriented programming, including classes, objects, inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation.

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Formac application related

Product Perfect's Formac development capabilities

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