I guess the questions would depend on the level of experience you are looking for.
If you want to know if they have a basic understanding of Umbraco, (content structuring, templating, etc), then questions like...
* What is a Data Type? What is a Document Type? and what is the difference between them?
* How would you display a property value on a webpage? How could you set this to be recursive?
Then there is more advanced targetted questions...
* If you wanted to be notified when a content page had been updated, how would you do this? (you'd be looking for answers about Event hooks or Notifications functionality).
* If you wanted to replace/remove a special character from the URL (of a content page), how would you achieve this? (looking for knowledge of umbracoSettings.config)
Let me rattle a few off here, I'll pick my brains when I get home a little later:
API:
How would you list a collection of nodes using XSLT and how would you do it using Razor? (looking for a draft implementation)
How would you filter that collection to list only particular nodes? (looking for their input on how best/options to do this - don't mention 'by Document Type')
How would you retrieve media (an image) referenced by a page node to output the URL? (couple of methods, which will they know?)
How would you create new nodes as a consequence of dynamic action (i.e. not using the UI, but based on user input from the front-end of the site.)
Of what type is the 'Model' of a RenderViewPage by default? (you might have to indicate specific versions here.)
Will using 'dynamic properties' to access native Model properties work? (again, may need to differentiate for versions.)
System:
How might you debug a compilation error? (will they apply context and offer IDE-related and CMS-UI related answers? Also a general programming question.)
How might you debug a runtime error? (do they know of umbDebug and umbDebugShowTrace? Can they describe the value of ouput by those methods? Also, are they familiar with general debugging of a system: Attaching a debugger, using Event Viewer, Trace logs etc.)
What are your views on the underlying architecture and how do you see it progressing? (General "what's your opinion" question - the toughest kind!)
Community (more curious and added value than anything):
Do you contribute to the project? (did they code any particular part of Umbraco itself?)
Do you contribute to supporting the project (do they use our.umbraco.org, Stack Overflow and even meetups?)
Do you contribute extensions to the project? (have they any packages, released or otherwise? Do they blog, either dedicated or among other stuff?)
thanks a lot for the detailed ideas. i will defenatly use some of them.
i decided to do the following:
home assigment - i will provide some html template and ask to convert some of the code to dynamic, in thier best way. i dont care if they will use google, forums or whatever. as long as they delivere quality solution and code.
interview - i will ask them various questions, from "what is the umbraco.config file and whats happend if i delete it" to high level question like "when you come to develop multi-language site, what approach do you choose and why".
thanks a lot and i encourage more people to add ideas for other people that maybe will see this thread in the future.
umbraco Interview Questions and Answers
hi,
i'm going to interview some developers for a big Umbraco project. (i'm experienced Umbraco developer).
can you please give me some examples of recommended questions, tests or any ideas that will help to to figure out fast if the
Thanks!
Eran.
Hi Eran,
I guess the questions would depend on the level of experience you are looking for.
If you want to know if they have a basic understanding of Umbraco, (content structuring, templating, etc), then questions like...
* What is a Data Type? What is a Document Type? and what is the difference between them?
* How would you display a property value on a webpage? How could you set this to be recursive?
Then there is more advanced targetted questions...
* If you wanted to be notified when a content page had been updated, how would you do this? (you'd be looking for answers about Event hooks or Notifications functionality).
* If you wanted to replace/remove a special character from the URL (of a content page), how would you achieve this? (looking for knowledge of umbracoSettings.config)
I'm sure there are more general questions. :-)
Cheers, Lee.
thanks Lee thats nice ideas.
if anyone have some more ideas you can post it in this post for future usage.
Thanks,
Eran.
Let me rattle a few off here, I'll pick my brains when I get home a little later:
API:
How would you list a collection of nodes using XSLT and how would you do it using Razor? (looking for a draft implementation)
How would you filter that collection to list only particular nodes? (looking for their input on how best/options to do this - don't mention 'by Document Type')
How would you retrieve media (an image) referenced by a page node to output the URL? (couple of methods, which will they know?)
How would you create new nodes as a consequence of dynamic action (i.e. not using the UI, but based on user input from the front-end of the site.)
Of what type is the 'Model' of a RenderViewPage by default? (you might have to indicate specific versions here.)
Will using 'dynamic properties' to access native Model properties work? (again, may need to differentiate for versions.)
System:
How might you debug a compilation error? (will they apply context and offer IDE-related and CMS-UI related answers? Also a general programming question.)
How might you debug a runtime error? (do they know of umbDebug and umbDebugShowTrace? Can they describe the value of ouput by those methods? Also, are they familiar with general debugging of a system: Attaching a debugger, using Event Viewer, Trace logs etc.)
What are your views on the underlying architecture and how do you see it progressing? (General "what's your opinion" question - the toughest kind!)
Community (more curious and added value than anything):
Do you contribute to the project? (did they code any particular part of Umbraco itself?)
Do you contribute to supporting the project (do they use our.umbraco.org, Stack Overflow and even meetups?)
Do you contribute extensions to the project? (have they any packages, released or otherwise? Do they blog, either dedicated or among other stuff?)
Hi Grant.
thanks a lot for the detailed ideas. i will defenatly use some of them.
i decided to do the following:
i dont care if they will use google, forums or whatever. as long as they delivere quality solution and code.
thanks a lot and i encourage more people to add ideas for other people that maybe will see this thread in the future.
Eran.
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