this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2025
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Technology
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I don't know much about IT (I'm CS), but Ad is very specific to Windows, no? Shouldn't you instead be asking them about higher-level concepts like access controls, networking principles (http vs tcp vs ip, routing, dns, etc), and basics of cybersecurity (attack surface, network segmentation, etc)? It sounds like you're looking for practical knowledge about specific solutions rather than familiarity with concepts.
in CS, I can't expect someone to know our specific stack, but I can expect them to know foundational principles, like data structures, algorithmic complexity, design patterns, design principles, etc. So unless they express familiarity w/ our stack, I keep the questions theoretical, and even if they are familiar w/ our stack, I still keep the questions high level (i.e. for Python, I'll ask "gotchas" like what's the difference between a list comprehension and traditional iteration, how does Python's threading work, etc). I expect them to need to learn something in the first month or two, but also to largely learn on their own. Learning our stack when you're comfortable with programming in general isn't all that difficult, learning our stack when you struggle with basic concepts will be a challenge though.
CS still operates heavily in the windows environment. The majority of the world and businesses operate in windows. You should know the basics. Asking high level concepts isn't needed if they're unable to answer basic foundational questions which most companies operate in
And you just summarized what I've been saying.
Also CS is my field as well, and knowing how the basics work inside of a windows environment, is a basic concept.
I don't know why so many are down voting this idea.
If you put out a job listing for say splunk, and you show up and don't even know the basics of how DBs work... that's what I'm referring to.
Literally don’t know anyone who uses Windows for dev work these days, unless developing software for Windows only.
It’s all Linux and MacOS because nobody wants to deal with Windows. 90% of software being developed is in the browser anyway and the backend stuff is nearly always Linux servers.