Knowledge Sharing

True or False: Effective knowledge sharing is primarily about having the right technology platforms, not necessarily about the culture within an organization.

false

An environment where employees feel safe to ask questions and admit knowledge gaps without fear of punishment is called _______________.

psychological safety

1. Which of the following is NOT a typical challenge to knowledge sharing within an organization?

• A) Lack of psychological safety

• B) Information islands

• C) Over-documentation

• D) Single point of failure (SPOF)

C

4. Select All That Apply: Which of the following are characteristics of “Information Islands”?

• A) Unified knowledge base

• B) Information fragmentation

• C) Information duplication

• D) Information skew

B,C,D

A situation where critical knowledge resides with only one person is known as a _______________.

single point of failure

True or False: “Parroting” refers to the deep understanding of a complex system, allowing for efficient problem-solving.

false

5. According to the chapter, what is more at the core of software engineering?

• A) Code

• B) People

B

8. Tribal knowledge is most accurately described as:

• A) Formally documented procedures

• B) Information known by individuals but not written down

• C) Knowledge accessible to everyone in the organization

• D) Outdated documentation

B

9. What is the first step when a new engineer joins Google?

• A) They are assigned a project

• B) They are assigned a mentor

• C) They are assigned a machine

• D) They are assigned a office

B

10. According to the text, which of the following is the MOST important part of an effective team?

• A) Competitive spirit

• B) Psychological Safety

• C) Technical Expertise

• D) Strong Leadership

B

Fill in the Blank: When trying to learn something new, you should always be _______________ questions.

asking

11. The principle of “Chesterton’s Fence” emphasizes:

• A) Always removing obstacles immediately

• B) Understanding the reason for something before changing it

• C) Building new fences for security

• D) Ignoring existing structures

B

13. What is the primary disadvantage of getting one-to-one help?

• A) Low bandwidth

• B) Limited scale

• C) High cost

• D) Difficulty in finding experts

B

What is the Google’s Q&A internal platform called?

YAQS (Yet Another Question System)

14. What is the most important way to achieve a safe and welcoming environment?

• A) Having strict rules

• B) Group interactions to be cooperative, not adversarial

• C) Having clear leadership

• D) Having experts on staff

B

16. Select All That Apply: Which of the following are examples of how Google engineers teach others?

• A) Office Hours

• B) Tech Talks

• C) Teaching classes

• D) Reviewing Code

• E) All of the above

E

17. What is the primary goal of documentation?

• A) To serve as a paper trail

• B) To help readers learn something

• C) To satisfy compliance requirements

• D) To track project progress

B

Google’s internal documentation platform that integrates documentation with source code is called _______________.

g3doc

What are Google’s internal URL shorteners called? _______________

go/links

What is the name of Google’s program for enforcing best coding practices? ______________.

Codelabs

True or False: Code should be thought of as a way to transcribe knowledge.

true

18. Which of the following is NOT a goal of the readability program?

• A) Enforce consistency

• B) Avoid islands

• C) Avoid drifting from established norms

• D) To make code unreadable

D

At a meta level, _______________ is knowledge.

code

_______________ analysis tools are a powerful way to share best practices that can be checked programmatically.

static

True or False: The value of codebase-wide consistency can be overstated.

true

True or False: The more complicated a topic, the less important it is for there to be expert owners to maintain documentation.

false

True or False: In a healthy learning culture, it is important to discourage failure in order to avoid mistakes.

false

23. Which of the following is a consequence of information islands?

• A) Improved communication between teams

• B) Redundant recreation of knowledge

• C) Standardized processes across the organization

• D) Centralized decision-making

B

True or False: Canonical Sources of Information are decentralized, team-specific documents designed to foster unique approaches within each group.

false

A structured approach to knowledge transfer where experienced employees guide new or less experienced ones is known as _______________.

mentoring

Areas of code that engineers avoid modifying due to fear of causing issues are referred to as _______________.

haunted graveyards

29. Which of the following best describes “Information Skew”?

• A) Complete lack of information on a topic

• B) Different teams using conflicting methods for the same task

• C) Information stored only in physical documents

• D) Knowledge accessible only to senior management

B

When different teams independently recreate the same processes due to lack of shared resources, this is called _______________.

information duplication

33. All-or-Nothing Expertise is an example of:

• A) A well-balanced team with diverse skills

• B) A knowledge gap where some know everything and others know very little

• C) A mentorship program for new hires

• D) A system of shared documentation

B

Mimicking solutions or patterns without understanding them is known as _______________.

parroting