Skill Test: Model of a House

In a previous post, I discussed the use of fictitious situations to use as a discussion platform to "test drive" the skills and thought processes of a potential candidate during an interview. The example below details the aspects of a House.

• Discussion Topic:  A House
• Context:
• Consider a standard family home. This home has 4 bedrooms (one of them is a master bedroom [20 x 20] with a walk-in closet and a full bathroom). A large guest room [20 x 20] and 2 smaller bedrooms [15 x 15]. This home also has  a large family room with a fireplace and a large kitchen that opens up to a full size deck (200 sq ft). It also has a finished basement. There are 2 rooms [15 x 15] in the basement and a large rec room with a wet bar adjacent to it. There is also a full bathroom in the basement.
• Feel free to edit this to your needs and set up aspects of the problem to cater for the type of skill you are looking for
• What to ask the candidate
• System Analysis and Design Track
• please construct a UML conceptual model diagram that shows all the aspects of the house in the "context" portion above.
• please construct a UML class diagram that represents the home described above
• Data Modeling Track
• please, construct an entity relationship diagram (ERD) that can be used to represent the home described above
• What to look for in your candidate's answers:
• assuming that you know UML, compare and contrast what the candidate came up with and what you would have come up with
• pay extra attention to the assumptions that the candidate made. If they do not mention any assumptions, please, simply ask them: What assumptions did you make as you were thinking about this problem?
• Use this opportunity to ask questions and experiment / explore what it would be like to work with this individual