Shibboleth Software Developer Interviews

A Shibboleth is a type of test and was invented to look for impostors. Essentially you have a word that a foreigner can't say properly because their native language. This test goes all the way back to the Old Testament:

Gilead then cut Ephraim off from the fords of the Jordan, and whenever Ephraimite fugitives said, 'Let me cross,' the men of Gilead would ask, 'Are you an Ephraimite?' If he said, 'No,' they then said, 'Very well, say Shibboleth.' If anyone said, 'Sibboleth', because he could not pronounce it, then they would seize him and kill him by the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell on this occasion.

So, first thing to notice is that this particular test resulted in a heavy penalty. The second is that if you have a speech issue, you are probably out of luck.

In WWII soldiers used a knowledge of baseball to detect friend or foe. Imagine if you were a football fan back then...

What I do like is that this a reasonably good test for interviewing software developers. I wouldn't worry about exact pronunciations, but phrases. Phrases are much more powerful indicators of impostors.

The one tool that I usually test a developer with is love and anger. Ask what the developer loves about the language or the API you need to have experience in. Then ask about what they hate. Unless you have great actors, they will fail these tests if they are not real experts or experience.

Don't just test your code, test your developers!