[kevmo314]

One of the worst interviews I've had the interviewer was not only similarly incorrect, but then afterwards proceeded to try to give me advice on interviewing skills, and how I should've "taken his hint" and been "more amenable to other answers". I probably would've been open to alternate answers if they were, y'know, factually correct.

[SilasX]

If you think that's bad, I was this guy[1].

tl;dr:

1) Interviewer insists that an operation must be n^2 "because it has a nested loop" even though the nested loops are only iterating over their own subset of the master string.

2) Interviewer refuses literally any test that would help decide which of us is right.

3) Interviewer turns out to not even understand the concept of resolving disagreements by appealing to agreed-upon facts, insisting that he would only be convinced by the absence of a nested loop (i.e. talking about some other algorithm).

4) Interviewer is five-year backend lead.

5) Interviewer vetoes me from the rest of the process purely because of that disagreement.

6) Because I thought I was going insane, I implemented it at home and ran the problem with different sizes and the run time with up as O(n) like clockwork.

[1] It's okay, I'm fine with people knowning and have outed myself elsewhere: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6070001

[baddox]

> Interviewer turns out to not even understand the concept of resolving disagreements by appealing to agreed-upon facts

That's a wonderful description of an attitude I have encountered many times.

[zaphirplane]

Thinking you are awesome because you know the answer to a question you have prepared for and asked many times, is one of my minor irritant