Dev Compass – Programming Philosophy Quiz
41 comments
·August 16, 2025Waterluvian
IgorPartola
I took it as “when working in the kinds of things things I prefer to work on using my preferred tools.”
For example, I prefer a mix of static and dynamic typing. Even for performance optimization where technically I do all four of the options, trying to write performant code from the start is what I prefer to do when possible.
This isn’t about the right tool for the job as much as what kinds of tools to you prefer to work with when given the choice.
arjonagelhout
I have the same issue. For many of the questions my answer is "all of the above, but A in context A, B in context B, etc.". Many are also not mutually exclusive.
Take this example: "When debugging I typically:"
> Write tests to isolate the problem
In the case of math functions, or more primitive building blocks, writing tests can help ensure correctness of the underlying functions, to exclude them from the problem search.
> Reason about the code logically first
This is always useful.
> Use a debugger to step through code systematically
Useful when dealing with a larger codebase and the control flow is hard to follow. The call stack can give quick guidance over trying to manually decipher the control flow.
> Add print statements to understand data flow:
Useful when debugging continuous data streams or events, e.g. mouse input, where you don't want to interrupt the user interaction that needs to be debugged.
thierrydamiba
Is the fact that the answer isn’t easy a feature or bug?
teapot7
Oh a bug, surely. How is the quiz supposed to give you insights when it's unanswerable?
josephg
I landed right in the middle - -1, -2. Which seems weird because I’m very opinionated about a lot of this stuff. I like a lot of the questions but a lot of my answers felt like I was arbitrarily picking something. That’s probably why.
Eg for testing, do I want “whatever finds bugs most effectively” or “property based testing”? Well, property based testing is usually the most time efficient way to find bugs. So, yes both of those. Debugging: do I use print statements, or a debugger, or logically think it through? Yes all of those. But if I arbitrarily said I use a debugger in a multiple choice test, I don’t think that tells you much about how I code!
I do - controversially - think some of the answers are naming bad practices. Like abstraction first is a bad idea - since you know the least about your problem before you start programming it up. Abstraction first inevitably bakes in whatever bad assumptions you walked in the door with into your code. Better to code something - anything - up and use what you learned in the process to iterate on your software architecture decisions. I also generally hate modern OO and these days I prefer static types over dynamic types.
But yeah. Interesting questions! Thanks for putting this together.
IgorPartola
Same. I am dead center but this did not really give me any hard questions. For example I controversially believe that user applications do not benefit from unit testing and that manual testing is both faster and superior in quality. Similarly, I believe that for most situations Python’s optional type system is a waste of time and mental load. It is not what catches bugs.
I think both are appropriate for well-scoped library code. But application code is just not well defined enough in most circumstances to get any benefit from it. But this quiz didn’t ask that and I suspect this would swing the score quite strongly.
Y_Y
Same. I got dead centre, even though I feel like I have strong biases, and rarely agree with my coworkers on design and style choices.
dang
Maybe your preferences are so contradictory that they cancel each other out :)
I got very close to centre also, just slightly on the "concrete" and "human friendly" sides. But who wouldn't want to be concrete or human-friendly?
QuantumNomad_
I likewise got very close to the centre, and was surprised.
If you had shown me the diagram only, and asked me to position myself on it I would have placed myself on the middle of the perimeter of the second quadrant (135 degrees along the circumference), to indicate that I strongly prefer human friendly and concrete over computer friendly and abstract respectively.
And even as I was answering the questions I felt that I was leaning heavily towards that, with answers like starting simple, documenting well and so on.
I think some of the pull in the opposite direction comes down to interpretation as well.
And actually I see in the repo for the quiz there is a JSON file that contains scores for each question that one could have a look at to see if the answers are scored the same way that you think they would be.
For people who haven’t done the quiz yet, don’t look at the json file until after taking the quiz.
https://github.com/treeform/devcompas/blob/master/questions....
andai
I forget who said it, but "I don't truly understand a program until the 6th time I've written it."
massung
Sounds like something Chuck Moore would have said. I have no idea if he did, but it made me think of him.
treeform
That's such a good quote. I can't find it anywhere, so I'll attribute it to you.
Supermancho
+1 abstract and 0 Neutral.
I thought the imperative vs object oriented was strange, since they are the same thing.
teapot7
Yes! The number of lousy articles and blog posts I've seen that talk about "imperative, oo and functional programming"...
hermannj314
This quiz is a good reminder of why I support ranked choice voting.
h4ch1
You prefer elegant, high-level solutions that are intuitive and accessible to other developers. You likely favor functional programming, clear abstractions, and code that reads like prose.
Abstract ↔ Concrete: +7 Abstract Human ↔ Computer Friendly: +11 Human-Friendly
Spot on I'd say; code is the best documentation unless I'm writing some bespoke mathematical algorithms, even then I try to offset it by writing and using clear variables/function names.
foxbarrington
GPT-5’s results:
Your Programming Philosophy
You prefer elegant, high-level solutions that are intuitive and accessible to other developers. You likely favor functional programming, clear abstractions, and code that reads like prose.
Abstract ↔ Concrete: +3 Abstract
Human ↔ Computer Friendly: +11 Human-Friendly
thewebguyd
-11 concrete, +14 human friendly lol.
> "You value clarity and directness in code. You prefer explicit, step-by-step solutions that are easy to understand and debug, even if they require more lines of code"
Sounds about right.
joshdavham
This was fun!
Also, I'd recommend NOT telling the test taker which dimensions they're getting scored on as it will affect the responses. For example, if you gave me a test telling me that you're gonna score me on Introversion-Extraversion and Neuroticism-Emotional Stability, then I may be more biased to answer questions to score me as an emotionally stable introvert since that's what I identify as.
Oh, and Abstract ↔ Concrete: 0 Neutral | Human ↔ Computer Friendly: +11 Human-Friendly
jonathrg
Yes, it's so easy to tell which direction each question will push the result, that it kinda distracts from thinking about the question
JSR_FDED
This was fun, and the conclusion was pretty good (slight preference for human-friendly and concrete).
At first I was frustrated that the answers were very much “it depends”, but then I decided that (a) this is low stakes, (b) just pick the closest one as if someone held a gun to your head. End result was fine.
flufluflufluffy
Abstract ↔ Concrete: -3 Concrete
Human ↔ Computer Friendly: +21 Human-Friendly
Pretty much what I expected. Probably also depends on what kind of code you write. I assume somebody who writes kernel drivers would lean more towards computer friendly.
bogdanoff_2
I'm not even sure what the options for the first question mean...
stego-tech
Concrete and human-readable here, which is exactly what I expected to get coming from IT (with short job cycles, high turnover, comparatively low wages) where my guiding principle is not being a dick to the next person by making sure they understand why I did things a given way, and where time to learn new things is very much a “thrown in the fire” type scenario (e.g., learning Asterisk while your global support line is down and your contractor holds non-regional business hours for support).
cardamomo
I would love to see how this overlaps with folks' preferred languages, frameworks, and tools.
I tried to finish this quiz but just can’t. Every question I got was a very big, “it depends on context…”
“Do you prefer strong static or dynamic or a mix?” Well… are we teaching 9th graders an intro to coding, writing a quick script to answer a bespoke data question, or writing a data processing library?
“On algorithms I focus on…” Okay, well… do we care about performance? Where is it running? How often will it run? Will the code be disposed of soon or live a decade? Do we need it working today or next week?
I just don’t understand how to even begin formulating an opinion on any of these questions without any context.
To use the compass analogy: shouldn’t you want to best know how to use a compass? What value is there in saying, “my favourite bearing is east-northeast”? That is, the substance in any of this is the “it depends…” portion. Any answers to this quiz are really just a proxy for the kinds of contexts people are solving problems in.