Are these interview questions too challenging for beginners?
<p>So I just interviewed two people today, and gave them "tests" to see what their skills were like. Both are entry level applicants, one of which is actually still in college.  Neither applicant saw anything wrong with the following code.</p>

<p>I do, obviously or I wouldn't have picked those examples.  <strong>Do you think these questions are too harsh for newbie programmers?</strong></p>

<p>I guess I should also note neither of them had much experience with C#... but I don't think the issues with these are language dependent. </p>

<pre><code>//For the following functions, evaluate the code for quality and discuss.  E.g.
//E.g. could it be done more efficiently? could it cause bugs?        
public void Question1()
{
    int active = 0;

    CheckBox chkactive = (CheckBox)item.FindControl("chkactive");
    if (chkactive.Checked == true)
    {
        active = 1;
    }

    dmxdevice.Active = Convert.ToBoolean(active);
}

public void Question2(bool IsPostBack)
{
    if (!IsPostBack)
    {
        BindlistviewNotification();
    }

    if (lsvnotificationList.Items.Count == 0)
    {
        BindlistviewNotification();
    }
}


//Question 3
protected void lsvnotificationList_ItemUpdating(object sender, ListViewUpdateEventArgs e)
{
   ListViewDataItem item = lsvnotificationList.Items[e.ItemIndex];
   string Email = ((TextBox)item.FindControl("txtEmailAddress")).Text;
   int id = Convert.ToInt32(((HiddenField)item.FindControl("hfID")).Value);

   ESLinq.ESLinqDataContext db = new ESLinq.ESLinqDataContext();
   var compare = from N in db.NotificationLists
                 where N.ID == id 
                 select N;
   if (compare.Count() &gt; 0)
   {
       lblmessage.Text = "Record Already Exists";
   }
   else
   {
       ESLinq.NotificationList Notice = db.NotificationLists.Where(N =&gt; N.ID == id).Single();
       Notice.EmailAddress = Email;
       db.SubmitChanges();
   }
   lsvnotificationList.EditIndex = -1;
   BindlistviewNotification();
}
</code></pre>
