In The White Board Inquisition, I mentioned the FizzBuzz program as a minimum standard for identifying programmers. It’s a simple test that any programmer should be able to write in just a few minutes.

Write a program that outputs the numbers from 1 to N on the console, with these exceptions. If the number is divisible by three, then instead of outputting the number, output the string “Fizz.” If the number is divisible by five, then output “Buzz.” And if the number is divisible by three and five, output “FizzBuzz.” So the first part of your output should be:

1,2,Fizz,4,Buzz,Fizz,7,8,Fizz,Buzz,11,Fizz,13,14,FizzBuzz,16

Writing the numbers one per line is fine. I wrote them as comma separated values here in the interest of saving space.

If you can’t write that program, you aren’t a programmer. If you can’t write that program, you’re no good to me as a programmer and your degrees, work experience, and ability to spout buzzwords aren’t going to impress me. If you fail this simple test, I will terminate the interview early.

I am completely flabbergasted at the number of people who claim to be “senior programmers” who can’t even write that simple program.

Some people have told me that I expect too much. “After all,” they say, “we’re not trying to find real programmers, just people who can hook up some Web pages.” That’s crazy. “Hooking up Web pages,” at least in the applications I’ve seen, requires real programming. Increasingly so, in fact, what with the profusion of JavaScript. FizzBuzz tests basic programming knowledge: the use of loops, conditional statements, and simple math. I guarantee that those things are required in even the simplest of interactive Web applications.

Understand, FizzBuzz is just the first test. And don’t expect me to give exactly that problem. I might change it around a bit to see if you really understand it or if you just memorized some code for the interview. You’d be surprised at how many people can write a flawless FizzBuzz, but are totally mystified when asked to modify the program so that it counts down from 100 to 1. It’s frightening.

Years ago, I laughed at the idea of the singularity occurring within my lifetime. Reaching that milestone will require systems that are orders of magnitude more complex than anything we’ve been able to build reliably. I did, however, agree that it could happen sometime in the future. Now, I’m not so sure. Even if we get enough smart people to design such a system, there’s no way a bunch of mush-for-brains “programmers” will ever be able to implement it.