PHP Interview questions from YAHOO

May 23rd, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

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A friend recently got some pre-interview questions from YAHOO for a PHP job. Following up my previous post about programmer questions I thought I would post them to give people examples of what a large corporation like YAHOO asks.

1. Which of the following will not add john to the users array?

         1. $users[] = 'john';
         2. array_add($users,'john');
         3. array_push($users,'john');
         4. $users ||= 'john';


2. What’s the difference between sort(), assort() and ksort? Under what circumstances would you use each of these?

3. What would the following code print to the browser? Why?

      $num = 10;
      function multiply(){
            $num = $num * 10;
      }
      multiply();
      echo $num;


4. What is the difference between a reference and a regular variable? How do you pass by reference & why would you want to?

5. What functions can you use to add library code to the currently running script?

6. What is the difference between foo() & @foo()?

7. How do you debug a PHP application?

8. What does === do? What’s an example of something that will give true for ‘==’, but not ‘===’?

9. How would you declare a class named “myclass” ? with no methods or properties?

10. How would you create an object, which is an instance of ‘“myclass’??

11. How do you access and set properties of a class from within the class?

12. What is the difference between include & include_once? include & require?

13. What function would you use to redirect the browser to a new page?

         1. redir()
         2. header()
         3. location()
         4. redirect()


14. What function can you use to open a file for reading and writing?

         1. fget();
         2. file_open();
         3. fopen();
         4. open_file();


15. What’s the difference between mysql_fetch_row() and mysql_fetch_array()?

16. What does the following code do? Explain what’s going on there.

      $date='08/26/2003';
      print ereg_replace('“([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)'‚¬?,\\2/\\1/\\3,$date);


17. Given a line of text $string, how would you write a regular expression to strip all the HTML tags from it?

18. What’s the difference between the way PHP and Perl distinguish between arrays and hashes?

19. How can you get round the stateless nature of HTTP using PHP?

20. What does the GD library do?

21. Name a few ways to output (print) a block of HTML code in PHP?

22. Is PHP better than Perl? - Discuss.

I have no idea if there are different levels of PHP tests within YAHOO but this seems to be much easier level than something like the Zend Certification questions which require at times encyclopedic knowledge of the language (thank god I passed!).

If you havent had a chance to read the articles about interviewing programmers, they are here.

There Are 87 Responses So Far. »

  1. Trackback by PHPDeveloper.org on 23 May 2007:

    Nick Halstead’s Blog: PHP Interview questions from YAHOO…

    …

  2. Comment by Oliver Dueck on 23 May 2007:

    Some of those are extremely easy, while others are more difficult - but mainly only because I haven’t memorized the usage of every single PHP function. I wonder how many correct answers are considered a “pass”.

  3. Comment by Nick Halstead on 23 May 2007:

    I do dislike questions that require you to have memorised functions and parameter orders. For example question 15 is relying upon the fact that you use these functions, if you use the PDO you will probably have forgotten what mysql_fetch_row() / mysql_fetch_array() do differently (array both associative and number indices, row is just numbered).

    I would prefer something like this. (just an example)

    15 Give an example of how to fetch a row from a database stored by number indice and by column key.

    This then lets them choose which database abstraction/layer to demonstrate. As per my other articles, I always prefer people to prove what they know, rather than what they don’t know.

  4. Comment by Ryan Brooks on 23 May 2007:

    Psst… Typo… It’s asort, not assort ;)

    Personally I don’t mind any of these questions… The multiply() question in particular was fairly clever… The ‘===’ vs ‘==’ was something that not a lot of PHP ‘developers’ can tell you the answer to and illustrates an understanding of the finer PHP dynamics.

    How’d you do!?

    -Ryan

  5. Comment by antych on 23 May 2007:

    Those are quite easy and fair questions. They don’t require you to memorize manual and should be a piece of cake for any professional php developer.

    There’s just one thing to add. I got a lot more logical puzzles than php questions on my interview :)

  6. Comment by fraki on 23 May 2007:

    “I always prefer people to prove what they know, rather than what they don’t know.”

    Well said, Nick.

  7. Comment by Leendert Brouwer on 23 May 2007:

    2. What’s the difference between sort(), assort() and ksort? Under what circumstances would you use each of these?

    Well, the difference between sort, ksort and assort, is that assort doesn’t exist (it’s asort :)

  8. Comment by jazzle on 24 May 2007:

    good stuff. (apart from the code colouring giving clues!)
    am working towards taking the Zend Cert myself.

  9. Comment by T. Dorsey Harrington on 25 May 2007:

    While that tests specific knowledge, I hope that it’s only a tiny part of their overall interview process, and one that is not given much weight. As a manager or potential co-worker, I’d much rather know how a candidate solves problems: how he or she gathers information, processes that information to formulate solutions, and then carries out those solutions. Another major interview factor is how well that person fits in with the company’s culture - work ethic, attitude, etc. There’s no point in hiring someone who will not be happy working there, and with whom I will not be happy working with. If all a company wants to know about me is my technical knowledge, that’s not a company I want to work for. If a manager isn’t interested in my problem-solving and people skills, he’s not someone I want to work with. If the group or department is hung up on who knows more and who knows less, they’ll never get anything done and I don’t belong there. I don’t think of myself as a replaceable cog in a large wheel, which is what the certification mindset pushes you into: anyone certified in X is as good as anyone else. Really?
    Full disclosure: I failed this PHP test miserably, so there’s no chance for me to become certified, nor would I waste my time. With the PHP documentation available online, I simply haven’t memorized the functions, etc. and never will. When I need to know something, it’s easy enough to just look it up, or use existing code to find examples; there’s plenty of that around.
    I’m far more interested in understanding big-picture business problems and applying the technology at hand to solving them. When it comes down to writing high-performance maintainable code, I think that I’m pretty good (and have been told as much), but frankly, you don’t have to write the best code in the world to get the job done.

  10. Comment by J on 25 May 2007:

    T Dorsey — I thought I was the only clueless one here. I make an excellent salary being a PHP Developer / Web Designer. I’m a code-god to my creative cronies and produce maintainable object oriented code where I can.
    Perhaps I should look into getting a certification, but I get results and I’m not sloppy. Guess I’m not cut out for the professional world?
    J

  11. Comment by Larry Blische on 25 May 2007:

    I’m with Harrington. I would probably fail that test too. And I’ve spent the last 5 years writing thousands of lines of php to replace lagacy applications at my company. I don’t memorize the functions either, preferring to use the online references.
    If you are putting together a team, trying to determine how the prospect will work out as a team member is paramount. What do they bring to the team vs. what the team has now. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. These need to be balanced in a team.
    I’m also much more interrested in knowing how they pick up new/better technology. After all, what language will the next project be using? I’ve done this work since 1979 and have seen lots of technology.

  12. Comment by Nick Halstead on 25 May 2007:

    I do agree that some certifcations are purely a memorizing game. The PHP 4 certification test can be included within this. It did have at least 50% questions that required you to know the right function and parameter order which does not prove anything. To give Zend some due in the PHP 5 certification they have moved away from this style of question.
    You also have to remember that when Zend wrote the test that they wanted it to cover not just your programming abilities but also a good rounding of understanding behind the web server, so it includes questions on configuration and probably 25% of questions are regarding security related matters.
    I certainly would not pass over CV’s for PHP programmers that do not have the certification (especially as so few have taken it in the UK so far.)
    T Dorsey - I agree with what you have to say regarding how people have to be the right culture fit, I have not discussed this as its a subject that I cannot advise on as each company has its own culture and a way of finding people who match it.
    I also agree that you cannot just focus on technical skills, problem solving is the root of good programming however you demonstrate it. As I stated above ‘I always prefer people to prove what they know, rather than what they don’t know.’
    The good news is that for all you PHP programmers out there that the market has never been so strong!

  13. Comment by P. Landerman on 25 May 2007:

    I’m on the same side as the last 3 posts. There will always be debate about whether it’s better to know a language inside and out or to have a good understanding, but also be able to see the big picture in a business. When I first started out in IT, I wanted to be the expert and get all kinds of certifications, but now I’m seeing the edge in being good in all facets of building projects and Web sites.

  14. Comment by J Merlin on 25 May 2007:

    It says pre-interview questions so it is probably just to weed out people who really know absolutely nothing and highlite the ones who know alot. It seems like the test is designed with a few simple questions (these probably being the most important), and other more obscure or tricky questions which i would consider would be a bonus if you got right. I would assume a company like Yahoo has a pretty well thought out interview process and knows exactly the type of people they are looking for.

  15. Comment by Jim on 25 May 2007:

    If you know the answers to these questions then why work for Yahoo? Start your own Yahoo! Big corporations need more competition to give more consumers choices.

  16. Comment by Hibi on 25 May 2007:

    PHPユーザ採用試験…
    先日ã€?新入社員ã?Œï½¢PHPã?Œã?§ã??ã‚‹ï½£ã?¨ã?„ã?£ã?¦Print関数ã?Œç?†è§£ã?§ã??ã?ªã?„ã?¨ã?„ã?†è©±ã?Œã?‚ã‚Šã?¾ã?—ã?Ÿã€‚PHPやプログラムを知らã?ªã?„人ã?ªã‚‰Print関数ã?Œã‚?ã?‹ã‚‰ã?ªã?„ã?¨ã?„ã?†ã?“ã?¨ã?Œã?‚ã?£ã?¦ã‚‚ä¸?æ€?è­°ã?§ã?¯ã?ªã?„ã?®â€¦

  17. Comment by MicroPHP on 25 May 2007:

    i can answer 11 questions :))) (but don’t read any manual and so). if i can read manuals then i can answer to all :))
    1. Which of the following will not add john to the users array?
    1. $users[] = ‘john’;
    2. array_add($users,’john’);
    3. array_push($users,‘john’);
    4. $users ||= ‘john’;
    Answer: 4. $users ||= ‘john’; i think this is not correct syntacsis.
    2. What’s the difference between sort(), assort() and ksort? Under what circumstances would you use each of these?
    Answer: one change not assort but asort. ( One s ) it for sort by keyor index.
    3. What would the following code print to the browser? Why?
    $num = 10;
    function multiply(){
    $num = $num * 10;
    }
    multiply();
    echo $num;
    Answer: here it print 10, function multiply only take processor time. it not do any. if u use here global $num, then it shows 100. But currently it show 10
    4. What is the difference between a reference and a regular variable? How do you pass by reference & why would you want to?
    Answer:
    5. What functions can you use to add library code to the currently running script?
    Answer:
    6. What is the difference between foo() & @foo()?
    Answer: here 2 is not show error. i use this is for mysql_connect’inos
    7. How do you debug a PHP application?
    Answer: i debug it whe it show result.
    8. What does === do? What’s an example of something that will give true for ‘==’, but not ‘===’?
    Answer:
    9. How would you declare a class named “myclass� with no methods or properties?
    Answer:
    10. How would you create an object, which is an instance of “myclass�?
    Answer:
    11. How do you access and set properties of a class from within the class?
    Answer:
    12. What is the difference between include & include_once? include & require?
    Answer: on include_once when file included, it not include file again.
    13. What function would you use to redirect the browser to a new page?
    1. redir()
    2. header()
    3. location()
    4. redirect()
    Answer: header(�location: other_page�); but use this on header of pafe, ib bellow this have one byte, then it not worked.
    14. What function can you use to open a file for reading and writing?
    1. fget();
    2. file_open();
    3. fopen();
    4. open_file();
    Answer: fopen(�file_name�, “r+�); :))
    15. What’s the difference between mysql_fetch_row() and mysql_fetch_array()?
    Answer:
    16. What does the following code do? Explain what’s going on there.
    $date=’08/26/2003’;
    print ereg_replace(“([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)�,\\2/\\1/\\3,$date);
    Answer:
    17. Given a line of text $string, how would you write a regular expression to strip all the HTML tags from it?
    Answer: i don’t do for this reg exp, i use function strip_tags();
    18. What’s the difference between the way PHP and Perl distinguish between arrays and hashes?
    Answer:
    19. How can you get round the stateless nature of HTTP using PHP?
    Answer:
    20. What does the GD library do?
    Answer: it for create and work on images.
    21. Name a few ways to output (print) a block of HTML code in PHP?
    Answer:
    22. Is PHP better than Perl? – Discuss.
    Answer: i think for small projects (if data have near 100 000 - 2-3 000 000 ) then PHP/MySQ, for medium projects. 3-10 000 000 (dynamic) data. PERL/PG SQL. for big Java/Oracle (JSP)

  18. Comment by bpk on 25 May 2007:

    the correct answer to most of these questions is “a simple yahoo search will yield me the answer to this in any real life situation�.
    most companies are less interested in how well you have a language memorized and more interested in whether you know the fundamentals of computer science. Any moron can read a book and memorize the answer to question 14, but they’re not necessarily a good coder.

  19. Comment by C. Markham on 25 May 2007:

    I agree with J. Merlin.
    These questions shouldn’t be looked at as one would use a test in college or a Certification Exam to determine a grade. What you want out of an interview is to measure how someone approaches solving problems which they know the answers to (e.g., do they over-generalize solutions they’re comfortable with?) as well as to the ones which they do not (phone a friend? ask yahoo? grab a book?). And of course, figuring it out on the spot is always revealing.

    I really hope these questions are given interactively rather than in a form. The best members of a development or support team are ones who can talk through their thought processes. And you get a sense of how they deal with dialogue: pointing out faults in thinking, suggestions of new directions, and even to how/when one gives up on an answer (we’ve all worked with “huffers & bluffers”).

    A Certification is just a foot in the door for a hiring manager that wants some base level of competence so they can expect some kind of throughput on assignments in relatively short order. It doesn’t guarantee that, and many coders who aren’t certified are certainly more productive than “book smart” Certified coders. Its just another tool.

    What is important in hiring managers and engineering managers is how to best create/use/nurture the tools–human-based and machine-based–at their disposal.

  20. Pingback by Ciprian Lupeanu » Blog Archive » PHP Interview questions on 27 May 2007:

    […] Yahoo PHP Programmer Test […]

  21. Comment by Matt Robinson on 29 May 2007:

    I’d be more inclined to ask questions about the theory rather than specific functions and their parameters - as so many others have said, it’s not about memorising argument orders or function names. It’s much more important that coders know both the fundamentals of security (especially input handling), and about writing maintainable code that other people in your team (or yourself six months on, for that matter) can read and understand.

    For example, I’d ask candidates how they’d handle input from (say) an HTML select/option tag, use a numerical ID from the URL to retrieve a row from a database, or ensure that a file being opened is really in the same folder as the current script (e.g. strpos(realpath($filename), dirname(__FILE__)) === 0 ).

    Of course, those are (as you said) only pre-interview questions, so I’ve no doubt that they perform their job adequately enough. The willingness and capacity to learn are more important than any right answers here, and that’s sometimes hard to spot at the interview stage, let alone at the pre-interview email stage.

    (P.S. Is it just me that thinks question 22 is used to detect crazy zealots? Surely the correct answer is that they both pale in comparison to Python ;) )

  22. Comment by ragabot on 30 May 2007:

    these questions are more than valid. There are *PLENTY* of people who can talk a good game about theory, but can’t produce code worth crap. Sure, there’s also plenty of people who have memorized the docs and fill in the blanks but are poor designers, but that’s why you test BOTH. You give them the test to weed out the total idiots (of which there are plenty — and yes, you could find all the answers to that quiz in a couple seconds with google, but if you’ve worked with PHP for more than a minute you should know at least 60-70% of them off the top of your head, and have a good idea about the others), and then TALK to them to see if they are a good fit and are able to reason.

    miss one of these parts and on the upside, you’ll likely have more code to submit to the dailywtf.

  23. Pingback by Links for the Weekend, 6-2-2007 on 2 June 2007:

    […] PHP Interview Questions From YAHOO - cool […]

  24. Trackback by fredrik-holmstrom.se on 7 June 2007:

    Yahoo PHP Interview Questions……

    Hittade en rolig liten artikel pÃ¥ nätet, det ska nämligen vara nÃ¥gra av de frÃ¥gorna Yahoo ställer till de PHP-programmerare som intervjuas för anställning, här har ni länken: http://blog.assembleron.com/2007/05/23/php-interview-questions-from…

  25. Pingback by Fredrik Holmstrom.se » Blog Archive » Läsvärt AKA dagens länkskörd on 7 June 2007:

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  26. Comment by Nate Klaiber on 7 June 2007:

    That was pretty easy. As others have said, I imagine it is to weed out those who have NO clue as to what they are doing. I didn’t see this test as memorizing all functions. The questions here were balanced. As you have said the ZCE 4 had much more questions related to specific functions. Also, the ZCE would throw in spelling errors on some questions (see $assort above) just to see how well you approach/solve the problem. Bugs are inevitable, and it’s part of a developers job to hunt them down and fix them (I had one a few years back where there was an extra ’s’ in session that was throwing things off).

    Personally, I don’t understand how you can call yourself a proficient PHP programmer and not be able to pass this test. No offense to anyone here, but PHP has a low barrier of entry, and there are plenty of really bad PHP scripts out there (either overly-complex or riddled with security issues) - why not take the time to do things right and understand what you are doing? I understand the manual is in front of you - I am not talking memorization here - I am talking building strong applications using the right tools.

    That may sound harsh, but just because you have made a living programming PHP, doesn’t make you a professional PHP programmer (I know a few guys like this). I know this because I WAS that guy - until I took a good look at myself and told myself I better step it up a notch if I wanted to be considered professional at what I do. And this same principle applies to other languages.

    Lots more to be said on the subject….thanks for posting the questions.

  27. Comment by L Benson on 8 June 2007:

    I’d consider myself a hobbyist/amateur PHP coder, who has merely dabbled in code to aid some of my own business processes, and I’d say - of those 22 questions - I’d be able to answer at least 18 of them off the top of my head.

    I understand the notion that it’s better to look at the nature of the program/problem holistically, with a puzzle-solving brain, than it is to memorize syntax.

    However - if Yahoo (or any other company) is looking for PHP developers specifically, I find it hard to imagine any pro developer can’t answer at *least* the 18 I could, and potentially the other 4, too.

    The only ones I’d really struggle on are the Perl comparisons - I’ve never used Perl, other than to install a few CGI scripts.

    I agree with the “barrier of entry” comment - PHP is *easy*, and its functionality no doubt hides a lot of the lower-level details of coding that other languages demand knowledge of. There are far too many people calling themselves “pro developers” who really are ignorant to what makes good code and application design.

    I’ll openly admit my amateur status. If you scored lower than me, sorry guys, but you’re amateur too.

  28. Pingback by O2 » Blog Archive » Php Job on 14 June 2007:

    […] Yahoo ,PHP kodlayan elemanlarını iÅŸe alırken ÅŸu teste tabi tutuyormuÅŸ; http://blog.assembleron.com/2007/05/23/php-interview-questions-from-yahoo/ […]

  29. Pingback by Perguntas de PHP na entrevista para o Yahoo! - vinicius.biz/blog on 14 June 2007:

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  32. Comment by avani on 26 June 2007:

    find it hard to imagine any pro developer can’t answer at *least* the 18 I could, and potentially the other 4, too.

  33. Pingback by PHP Job Hunter’s Handbook » Blog Archive » Yahoo interview questions on 27 June 2007:

    […] Halsted wrote a blog entry describing a set of Yahoo pre-interview questions used for PHP candidates.  I thought it would be useful to post a link here.  I am working on […]

  34. Comment by Coder on 28 June 2007:

    If it was me i would have a steady 80% correct (Due to regex) I am still a little weary about that.

    Good questions, thanks for sharing.

  35. Comment by Chris on 13 July 2007:

    @L Benson

    I find that you are correct in your ascertation that there are too many people walking around acting as if they are professional php developers without having even a solid grasp on basic programming concepts. Being able to string together some php that you found online doesn’t make you a dev and getting paid to do that doesn’t make you a pro dev.

  36. Comment by gug365 on 17 July 2007:

    here questions are easy!

  37. Comment by Paul Chandler on 17 July 2007:

    Be warned when interviewing with Yahoo! They use a “special” PHP, hand-modified by Rasmus. Example code that you send them might not work.

  38. Comment by Steve on 24 July 2007:

    I actually had a subset of these questions given me in a recent interview (not for Yahoo! by the way). I guess they took them from here. I think I did pretty well with just about all of them but I couldn’t stop thinking about that first one. I answered (b) because there is no such function as array_add. I didn’t recognise the construct of (d) at all but figured it must be some uber l33t php code or something.
    I realise now my mistake was in thinking there was only one (in)correct answer. Doh!

  39. Comment by Sandy on 25 July 2007:

    Er, 16 should give you a parse error. Strings need to be quoted in PHP, last time I looked. ;) Also, I’d immediately respond that using ereg* is bad in PHP because of the implementation speed versus preg*.

    I find the asort, ksort, sort question to be a trifle lame. I certainly don’t remember all the implementation details, but then most of the time I get data out of the database and sorting it in memory is a pretty dumb way to run a railroad. Yes, there are a handful of times you need to do it, but those times are rare enough that I’d be suspicious of someone who was intimately familiar with that question but missed === versus ==.

    I also wouldn’t weight mysql_fetch_row() vs mysql_fetch_array() highly because the docco says “An important thing to note is that using mysql_fetch_array() is not significantly slower than using mysql_fetch_row(), while it provides a significant added value.”

  40. Comment by Stockholm Consultant on 30 July 2007:

    I applied for a PHP job at Yahoo in Stockholm and before the scheduled interview I read up on these questions. Some are trickier than they look without a reference. Nice exercise… enjoyed it immensely.

    However I think the best way to screen developers is to make them show some code, like a log-in script or a simple blog, and then explain it. Best to have them do the script on-site and give them like an hour or two. Maybe even have them set up Apache, MySQL, and PHP on a new laptop as well.

    But the real point of my comment is that I never went to that Yahoo interview because my recruiter told me the salary was less than what I would accept minimum. They wanted to pay less than 30,000 SEK per month (around $40,000 year even when the dollar is in the toilet) in a major world capital. Stuff is expensive here. A beer costs 10 bucks. After taxes that’s less than $3,000 a month to pay my bills. How can I work hard when I have to think twice before buying a beer? I would need to freelance at night to avoid being broke all the time.

    What are these guys paying in the States? Does anyone think salary is the reason Google is completely trouncing them?

  41. Comment by Hans Fraser on 2 August 2007:

    Ha Ha … funny … the only thing i find sad is that i know tons of programmers that can actualy recite all the functions they need by heart … but having a good memory is a long way off from understanding good programming ethics and being able to program proper system structures.

  42. Pingback by Yahoo Job Interview Questions: Part 1 on 13 August 2007:

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  43. Comment by Aree Cohen on 13 August 2007:

    I think my most valuable strength as a PHP developer, is that I’ve been the sole developer for a very large media company, working on high traffic sights that have pushed server resources to their limits. This has given me first hand experience of the critical importance of optimised coding - why to choose one coding strategy over another. If I was working on a low traffic sight, I wouldn’t have been forced to pay as much attention to these finer details and as a consequence I wouldn’t be as good a programmer. Its one thing to practice good coding standard because its “good”, but its quite another thing, when you’re forced to practice quality standards to keep high traffic sites alive. The development environment plays an extremely large role in making good or bad programmers

  44. Pingback by developercast.com » Matt Wilkin’s Blog: Yahoo Job Interview Questions (and Answers) Parts 1 & 2 on 29 August 2007:

    […] a response of sorts to these interview questions posted by Nick Halstead, Matt Wilkin took the next step and worked up the answers for the questions […]

  45. Pingback by smalls blogger » Blog Archive » links for 2007-08-30 on 30 August 2007:

    […] The Programming and Management Blog » PHP Interview questions from YAHOO PHP Interview questions from YAHOO (tags: php interview programming yahoo questions interviews career management reference) Posted in Bookmarks | […]

  46. Comment by Stefan Sturm on 31 August 2007:

    What are they looking for?
    A programmer or a manual?

  47. Pingback by Good and Bad PHP Code « Resistance is futile on 12 September 2007:

    […] knowledge of PHP’s functions. Zend’s PHP certification does a good job of that (as does the test that Yahoo! issues to applicants for its PHP developer jobs, […]

  48. Comment by a3b on 18 September 2007:

    The biggest problem i had with the questions is that I am using a framework and that does alot of stuff and all the retrieving for me. Been a while I used fetch_row and that kind of stuff…but i think I could finish atleast 60-70% of the questions just by experience and plain logical thinking. For example…asort and ksort (never used ksort), where does the ‘a’ and ‘k’ could stand for? And if you read a book now and then…it would be a piece of cake, right?

    I know some guys who recently started a company and still build everything in tables. A couple of years ago I had some discussions with them about this…they still use damn tables! You still got some weirdos out there my brothers.

  49. Comment by Joeblack99 on 24 September 2007:

    These are great questions. I also found some good ones at http://www.acetheinterview.com

  50. Comment by Serializer on 2 November 2007:

    I was doing great until #22.

    My 4-letter answer: ROFL

    I hope the interviewer has a sense of humour…

  51. Pingback by PHP pre-interview from Yahoo — Записки искателей on 20 November 2007:

    […] Voituk   Дата: 14.08.2007 08:43 Nick Halstead опубликовал в своем “The Programming and Management Blog” список из 22 вопросов, которые задавались кандидату на […]

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  60. Pingback by my McLife :: annemich.net » Blog Archive » PHP Interview questions from YAHOO on 3 February 2008:

    […] Found this article from Nick Halstead blog. […]

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    More Interview questions and answers on PHP from
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  62. Comment by Sampurna on 28 March 2008:

    This is a great site for those that need a quick review of PHP codes. A bit easy for the more experienced people though.

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  67. Pingback by Being a Lead Developer - Part 1 - Mentoring Trainees on 17 May 2008:

    […] hiring anyway. I did a little background reading on interview techniques [Recommended: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5], particularly regarding programmers and stuck to the technical side of things, allowing my […]

  68. Comment by Justin on 20 May 2008:

    Nick said “I do dislike questions that require you to have memorised functions and parameter orders.”

    I agree; however, it has been my experience in interviews and associated testing that the testers are not always looking for an exact answer, but just that you have some knowledge over what each question is geared toward.

    Yet, questions like “22. Is PHP better than Perl? - Discuss.” and the other Perl question baffle me when they show up on a PHP test. I thought we were here to talk about PHP, not Perl. And while it is important to know multiple languages so that you can use the appropriate tool for the job, these sort of questions are mostly off topic in a language specific test.

  69. Pingback by HM2K.com » 50+ PHP optimisation tips revisited on 20 May 2008:

    […] Think you’re a PHP guru now? See if you can answer these questions. […]

  70. Comment by Frank on 1 June 2008:

    Question one confuses me…I couldn’t find the array_add() function, never heard of that one. I think the ||= syntax is a typo and meant to be []= the array append operator and appends an element to the end of an array. Other than that, I think I did okay.

  71. Comment by limotek on 2 June 2008:

    I agree with Justin’s comments.

  72. Pingback by Yahoo! PHP interview questions @ Tech Interviews.com on 11 June 2008:

    […] Halstead on his blog posts a list of interview questions from Yahoo! that a friend of his supplied, apparently free of NDA. Yahoo! is a strong PHP shop, […]

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