alt Hacker News>You can often tell an inexperienced interviewer from the extremely domain specific question they ask which _they_ are familiar with.
Lol a bit touchy aren't we?
Like I said, it's not really relevant in today's languages. It was for a Delphi/Pascal position. If you do any type of database code (like T-SQL), you would also know it. If your experience is mainly in C type languages, everything is a function so it doesn't apply.
If you hired a guy for a Delphi position who didn't know the difference between a function and a procedure, you hired the wrong guy.
procedure Hello;
begin
ShowMessage ('Hello world!');
end;
function Double (Value: Integer) : Integer;
begin
Double := Value * 2;
end;
Replies
> Our "gotcha," which doesn't apply to most languages anymore is, "What's the difference between a function and a procedure." It's a one sentence answer, but people who didn't know it would give some pretty enlightening answers.
If you're asking this question (by virtue of the present-tense "is") in the year 2025 even though by your own admission
> it's not really relevant in today's languages.
then you aren't giving candidates a good impression. Even though I would have nailed this question I would have serious reservations about any job that would ask it in an interview because it means that the person interviewing me has more concern for legacy minutiae than broad technical knowledge or problem-solving skills.
I think you are missing my point.
Words like functions/procedures tend to have different connotations across languages and once one crosses one's 15th language, and each having some 20 different keywords, it become difficult to remember what the exact connotation of a word is, in a specific language/framework. This is the most likely situation of the guy whose post I responded to.
The exception to the rule is, if you have been working quite a bit _recently_ on a specific language. You are presumably talking about this situation.
>Lol a bit touchy aren't we?
No. I just looked up other responses to your post. It's obvious you got exposed as being inexperienced (or an idiot), while posing to know the definitive with your "gotcha". Being inexperienced (or ignorant) is not a problem, but being cocky is.