Languages

Question 1

3 worst defects:

Tell me the 3 worst defects of your preferred language.

Question 2

Functional Programming:

Why is there a rising interest in Functional Programming?

Question 3

Closures:

What is a closure, and what is its usefulness? What’s in common between closures and classes?

Question 4

Generics:

What are generics useful for?

Question 5

High-Order Functions:

What are higher-order functions? What are they useful for? Write one, in your preferred language.

Question 6

Loops and Recursion:

Write a loop, then transform it into a recursive function, using only immutable structures (i.e. avoid using variables). Discuss.

Question 7

Functions as First-Class Citizens:

What does it mean when a language treats functions as first-class citizens?

Why is it important that in a language functions are first-class citizens?

Question 8

Anonymous Functions:

Show me an example where an anonymous function can be useful.

Question 9

Static and Dynamic typing:

There are a lot of different types of systems. Let’s talk about static and dynamic type systems and about strong and weak ones. You surely have an opinion and a preference about this topic. Would you like to share them, and discuss why and when would you promote one particular type of system for developing an enterprise software?

Question 10

Namespaces:

What are namespaces useful for? Invent an alternative.

Question 11

Language Interoperability:

Talk about interoperability between Java and C# (in the alternative, choose 2 other arbitrary languages)

Question 12

Hate of Java:

Why do many software engineers not like Java?

Question 13

Good and Bad Languages:

What makes a good language good and a bad language bad?

Question 14

Referential Transparency:

Write two functions, one referentially transparent and the other one referentially opaque. Discuss.

Question 15

Stack and Heap:

What is a stack and what is a heap? What’s a stack overflow?

Question 16

Pattern Matching:

Some languages, especially the ones that promote a functional approach, allow a technique called pattern matching. Do you know it? How is pattern matching different from switch clauses?

Question 17

Exceptions:

Why do some languages have no exceptions by design? What are the pros and cons?

Question 18

Variant and Contravariant Inheritance:

If Cat is an Animal, is TakeCare a TakeCare?

Question 19

Constructors and Interfaces;

In Java, C#, and many other languages, why are constructors not part of the interface?

Question 20

Node.js:

In the last few years, there has been a lot of hype around Node.js. What’s your opinion on using a language that was initially conceived to run in the browser in the backend?

Question 21

Java and time-traveling:

Pretend you have a time machine and pretend that you have the opportunity to go to a particular point in time during Java’s (or C#, Python, Go or whatever) history, and talk with some of the JDK architects. What would you try to convince them of? Removing checked exceptions? Adding unsigned primitives? Adding multiple-inheritance?