The N7 Mobile approach to technical recruitment
When planning a recruitment process for a developer position, one of the most frequent questions is: what truly matters most when assessing a candidate's skills? How can we make the best use of those two hours of technical interviews to effectively evaluate a candidate’s fit for the company or project?
At N7 Mobile, we believe a technical interview can be more than just a knowledge test about the details of a specific framework or the latest Android SDK features. We value assessing general programming knowledge and problem-solving skills over rote memorization.
The technical interviews we conduct across various projects follow a similar pattern. A solid foundation of technical knowledge is key—specific tools often come second. Why? A developer with strong fundamentals and a curiosity about how systems work has greater potential to grow, quickly adapt to new technologies and transition smoothly between teams in the future. This is critical in a software house environment.
Why Fundamentals Matter?
Technology evolves rapidly. Frameworks and tools that are standard today might be replaced by newer solutions in a few years. Therefore, the ability to "learn how to learn" and strong programming fundamentals are crucial for anyone aiming to grow in the IT industry.
This doesn’t mean project-specific technical expertise is irrelevant. In many situations and projects, business requirements might demand high proficiency in a specific tool. The key question becomes: how can we strike the right balance?
General knowledge—encompassing algorithm basics, data structures, and design patterns—enables candidates to think abstractly, solve diverse problems, and adapt to new technological challenges. This means that even when dealing with unfamiliar code, a candidate (and later, an employee) can quickly understand how it works and in what context it can be used. Moreover, they can identify hidden bugs, and inconsistencies, and recommend improvements with clear reasoning, which is immensely valuable for any project.
Testing Specific Knowledge or Potential?
Many technical interviews resemble a closed-book test with a predefined set of answers—HR starts with a checklist of technical requirements and ticks boxes during the interview. Technical recruiters then go through a list of standard questions to assess knowledge of specific tools. If the candidate hasn’t worked with the specific tool or framework used in the project, they often don’t get the chance to demonstrate their skills. Interviews can also be stressful for candidates, leading to mistakes or momentary forgetfulness, even about topics they’ve worked on for years.
In our opinion, this approach risks missing candidates with significant potential. Transitioning from one, similar tool to another is often just a matter of hours spent familiarizing oneself with the new software. That said, we understand it’s not always possible to bypass technological specifics, particularly when a project requires an expert in a given field or immediate onboarding due to an urgent need to replace an absent team member.
Our Approach
After years of working in mobile technologies, we’ve developed a different approach. Alongside standard technical questions, we’ve found it valuable to ask about the underlying principles of key mechanisms and whether the candidate “looks under the hood” or simply replicates existing solutions. For example:
- Does the candidate understand how garbage collection works in the JVM?
- Do they know how Android’s resource management system operates?
- Can they explain why the MVVM architecture works better in some projects than MVP?
Such questions go deeper and help us evaluate whether the candidate understands how software works, not just its superficial implementation.
Areas Worth Exploring
During a recruitment interview, it’s worth checking how a candidate handles universal programming topics. Examples include:
- Data Structures: Does the candidate understand how lists, stacks, queues, trees, and sets work?
- Algorithms and Computational Complexity: Can they identify the most efficient solution to a problem?
- Object-Oriented Programming Principles and Design Patterns: Do they understand SOLID principles, DRY, or patterns like Singleton, Observer, or Factory?
A programmer with general knowledge and a passion for technology has the potential to be an invaluable team member, adding value to every project they work on. A technical interview should be more than a knowledge test—it should assess the candidate’s current skills and potential.
Every company has its unique approach to recruitment. At N7 Mobile, we believe referring back to programming fundamentals during at least one stage of technical assessment yields excellent results. This approach helps us hire fantastic candidates unafraid of any challenge.