There are Computer Science graduates who seem
like pretty decent programmers when you talk to them. They know theory, they know language features, and they're overall pretty conversant on the topic of programming. Then you see their code, and you discover that they stink on ice.
That's why we have fizzbuzz problems. A fizzbuzz problem is a
short computer science
test designed to illustrate competency (or incompetency) by giving the
test-taker a simple task that should take something
like a minute or two to program. These can be used in job applications, or in academic settings to see how well a certain educational program is Really going.
The
name comes from an essay about devising problems of this type, where the blogger involved the phrase "fizzbuzz" in the tasks.
The eponymous fizzbuzz
problem: Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to 100. But for multiples of
three print "Fizz" instead of the number and for the multiples of five print "
Buzz". For numbers which are multiples of both three and five, print "FizzBuzz".