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by mak120
5556 days ago
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I interviewed with them recently (got through phone interviews and am waiting for a visa for my onsite interview), and I never got any trick/puzzle questions that need no programming to solve. I did get questions about simple CS concepts and had to write code for programming problems on a shared google doc. Nothing any ordinary CS graduate wouldn't know. I made mistakes, which my interviewers always guided me to correct. They don't expect you to write a flawless binary search - they know you'll make mistakes. What they want to see is how you think and how you code, and how you recover from mistakes. Also, that you know what binary search is in the first place. That was my first interview, and they said at first it was going to be a coding interview. My next interview was a design interview. We talked at length about designing a simple web application, which got increasingly sophisticated as we progressed. But my interviewer did ask me to write code to demonstrate what I had in mind from time to time and I had to code up some small methods and classes to show him. No puzzles. No CS theory or abstract problems. Just what I would do if I were building a real world application. Oh, and they asked about what projects I had worked on both interviews. I have been an interviewer in the place where I work currently, and I always asked candidates to write code. Some guys here ask puzzles, but I don't like that. Puzzles
(like how to find you who's lying in an island on people or something) don't really show anything in an interview situation. But a short programming problem, demonstrating the ability to identify and use a well known data structure or algorithm, or to use good sense and understanding to design a solution to a problem does go a long way to show that a candidate can actually code and get stuff done. I've seen lots of bad candidates impress us with their knowledge of tech buzzwords, past projects in their CV and even talking about design patterns, but fail miserably when asked specific questions or writing even the simplest amount of code. But if someone asks me about trains and birds, I would seriously reconsider working there |
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Agreed. It doesn't have to be perfect. They should be able to talk and explain it. Whiteboard design sessions are my favorite A good marker and a whiteboard are indispensable for me, and I use it in interviews as well. I present the situation as here is a typical problem we are solving, let's solve this together.
I also give plenty of chances to let the candidate tell me or teach me something they are excited about.