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Pair Programming
3 posts about Pair Programming. Every summary links to the original.
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- 2 companies
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Building "Minicom": How Our Engineering Interviews Illustrate Values
Intercom’s engineering interview breaks from the common practice of testing arbitrary, Googleable knowledge by having candidates build “Minicom,” a scaled-down version of its Messenger product, within a fixed time. Candidates begin with a minimal viable demo and then choose which features to prioritize or optimize, directly echoing the company’s philosophy of shipping small, cupcake-sized products and iterating rapidly. Throughout the interview, pairing sessions with Intercom engineers allow candidates to ask for help on obstacles, demonstrating collaborative problem-solving in a realistic context. At the conclusion, candidates present their creation, explain their design and product choices, and reflect on what they learned and what they would improve given more time. This process illustrates Intercom’s core values: shipping to learn, collaboration, and emphasizing learning potential over pre-existing stack knowledge, while ensuring the interview is transparent and respects candidates’ time as a mutual evaluation.
Pair Programming Explained
Pair Programming Explained presents pair programming as two people writing, debugging, or exploring code together, while explaining why Shopify uses it for knowledge sharing, collective ownership, learning, quality, and onboarding. It defines terms including problem, solution, driver, navigator, expert, novice, and disengagement, and stresses that the driver handles implementation while the navigator guides broader strategy and spots errors. Guidance covers when to pair, the trade-offs among expert-expert, expert-novice, and novice-novice combinations, and the risks of “watch the master” or disengagement. Suggested practices include switching roles with the Pomodoro Technique, using Strong Style or Digging for Gold, and holding a retrospective to discuss flow, learning, and tension. The article presents pairing as a focused collaborative practice that benefits from shared attention, regular breaks, and deliberate communication rather than an unstructured coding session.
Shopify Interns Share Their Tips for Success
Shopify interns and a former intern describe how they approached interviews, daily work, and growth across backend, development, solutions engineering, iOS, and application security roles. Their routines include stand-ups, pull-request review, coding, meetings, pair programming, production monitoring, and regular breaks, with some teams organizing work around three-week release cycles. Interview advice centers on completing the application, explaining non-traditional backgrounds, demonstrating passion and adaptability, communicating technical solutions to different audiences, and being honest about knowledge gaps. Inside Shopify, contributors say success depends on asking questions early, seeking feedback and mentorship, taking initiative, talking beyond one’s team, and holding strong opinions weakly. The post also announces Fall 2018 intern hiring, with applications due May 11, 2018, at 9:00 AM EST.
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