Software Engineer Detained At JFK, Given Test To Prove He's An Engineer

[Jimbo101]

Mashable.com

Slashdot.org

Celestine Omin, a software engineer at Andela -- a tech startup that connects developers in Africa with U.S employers -- had a particularly unwelcoming reception when he deplaned at John F. Kennedy Airport and was given a test to prove he was actually a software engineer.

A LinkedIn post detailing Omin's challenging experience explained that upon landing in New York after spending 24 miserable hours on a Qatar Airways flight, he was given some trouble about the short-term visa he obtained for his trip. According to the post, an unprepared and exhausted Omin waited in the airport for approximately 20 minutes before being questioned by a Customs and Border Protection officer about his occupation.

After several questions were asked, he was reportedly brought to a small room and told to sit down, where he was left for another hour before another customs officer entered and resumed grilling him. Omin was instructed to answer the following questions: "Write a function to check if a Binary Search Tree is balanced," and "What is an abstract class, and why do you need it."

too bad there isn't an intelligence test requirement for POTUS (I quit using /s)

[unblock]

1. maybe travelers should carry a test to see if immigration officials understand immigration law ;)

[LonePirate]

2. I have reached a point where all ICE and Borders/Customs employees ...

need to be fired once we reclaim the executive office. It's probably not possible but damn I am fed up with bullshit like this and it's been less than six weeks.

[KittyWampus]

3. their social media accounts need to be checked for racist affiliation. And their associates

questioned about racist attitudes.

[lpbk2713]

4. It could be just as simple as following them out to the parking lot.

To see what bumper stickers they have on their car.

[Blue_true]

7. I had that thought yesterday. Once we retake all of government.

A legal rationale should be developed for firing all ICE agents and managers. I am afraid the agency is infested with race and ethnic haters and that needs to be sorted out so that we get professional people executing our immigration laws.

[Oneironaut]

5. I'm a programmer. 99% of programmers would have no clue wtf a binary search tree is.

I bet they had a computer scientist write this question. Many programmers are noobs who would probably give a deer in the headlights look. Many .Net devs would have no clue what the heck they were on about.

[Ilsa]

6. Hubby is a software engineer,

30+ years in financial services, POS programming, and I had to (attempt to) explain net neutrality to him. Being a software engineer can be as diverse an occupation as being a surgeon vs a high school chemistry teacher.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

8. Yeah, I work in the field

But I couldn't answer questions like this on the spot. It is a very diverse field as someone said. I have expert level knowledge related to the apps we use in the business I work for because that's what I've been doing for over a decade now. The binary search question I wouldn't have an answer for unless I was allowed to google it.