[spike021]

> Even 4x2 hour interviews is still only the equivalent of a single workday.

How many software engineers are working "hard" or to the level of 4 long whiteboarding-style problems for all eight hours of their day?

In my experience, not many.

[PragmaticPulp]

Likewise, those 1-2 hour interview sessions aren’t going to be hardcore coding from the second the timer starts until it ends. Some or even much of it will be two-way conversation and a chance for the candidate to get to know the team.

[t-writescode]

I'm beginning to wonder:

* how crazy some other company's interview loops are, if they really are coding every single one of those hours.

* if people on HN are actually on interview loops, assessing candidates.

[spike021]

That's a very subjective claim. For me personally I tend to get stressed out even on simpler problems.

The best two-way conversation at least for SDE interviews IMO is the systems design one because ideally it really is just a back-and-forth conversation.