It's the start of the coding interview. It moves on from there. This candidate didn't even ask if he could use Apache commons, and I hadn't yet specified that he couldn't use a 3rd party library. So yes. He failed on many counts.
1) not asking clarifying questions
2) not being familiar with some well-known libraries
3) not being able to implement a basic reverse string
4) not being able to explain whether or not a simple method was thread safe (with multi-threading experience all over his resume)
I expect engineers, senior or otherwise, to be able to write code. If you can't do that, don't put it on your resume.
If you honestly think implementing a reverse string method is "too complicated"...
Edit: sorry, leaving the response as-is, but I recognize you didn't state "too complicated". You stated "focused on the wrong skills". I posit that an engineer that can't reverse a string, as a litmus test, will be likely unable to solve a more complicated problem.
1) not asking clarifying questions 2) not being familiar with some well-known libraries 3) not being able to implement a basic reverse string 4) not being able to explain whether or not a simple method was thread safe (with multi-threading experience all over his resume)
I expect engineers, senior or otherwise, to be able to write code. If you can't do that, don't put it on your resume.
If you honestly think implementing a reverse string method is "too complicated"...
Edit: sorry, leaving the response as-is, but I recognize you didn't state "too complicated". You stated "focused on the wrong skills". I posit that an engineer that can't reverse a string, as a litmus test, will be likely unable to solve a more complicated problem.