From my experience, I have seen another type of question that is difficult to answer.
It hard for me to explain exactly what is the problem, and this is why I'm commenting here, maybe you can define it.
The problem is about the context of the question. The junior is trying to feel professional, or he ashamed his lack of knowledge, so he try to ask you "professionally", going directly to the specific point of failure (the point he is thinking it is), with a lot of professional words.
He think he "helps" you to go directly to the problem, but the truth is that you can't answer correctly because you don't understand the context.
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I’ve seen what you’re referring to as well, and you’re right it’s a hard problem to define.
I think this type of question likely falls under the “Can you fix my code?” category, where the junior dev knows better than to directly ask that question. But, instead of going the direction that I laid out in this article, they instead just try and mask their question with confusing jargon that they barely even understand.
It might help to be honest with them: tell them they don’t need to be ashamed for asking these types of questions and that we’ve all been there. Maybe then they’ll feel more comfortable and ask clearer questions.
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From my experience, I have seen another type of question that is difficult to answer.
It hard for me to explain exactly what is the problem, and this is why I'm commenting here, maybe you can define it.
The problem is about the context of the question. The junior is trying to feel professional, or he ashamed his lack of knowledge, so he try to ask you "professionally", going directly to the specific point of failure (the point he is thinking it is), with a lot of professional words.
He think he "helps" you to go directly to the problem, but the truth is that you can't answer correctly because you don't understand the context.
I’ve seen what you’re referring to as well, and you’re right it’s a hard problem to define.
I think this type of question likely falls under the “Can you fix my code?” category, where the junior dev knows better than to directly ask that question. But, instead of going the direction that I laid out in this article, they instead just try and mask their question with confusing jargon that they barely even understand.
It might help to be honest with them: tell them they don’t need to be ashamed for asking these types of questions and that we’ve all been there. Maybe then they’ll feel more comfortable and ask clearer questions.