[cjslep]

For my first job out of uni, I was asked to write pseudocode on a whiteboard to solve a simple scripting problem (call an executable repeatedly, changing the command line args). My background is nuclear engineering, and I was interviewing at a cloud/networking business, so I was already slightly outside my experience comfort zone[0]. I was explaining my thought process while writing on the whiteboard, trying my best to be transparent about how I was thinking, when the interviewer interrupted me.

"What is that?" he asked, pointing at the whiteboard.

"...pseudocode?" I replied, hesitantly, frantically looking for some mistake where he was pointing.

"That's not pseudocode..." he said as he started to berate me for not writing bash.

After that (I did not get an offer), every interview I went to when someone asked me to write pseudocode I'd always clarify "Is there any particular language you want me to use?" because I never want to relive that experience again.

[0] I had previous experience interning at Cisco.

[seanflyon]

Expecting pseudocode to be in a particular language is objectively wrong. It's annoying that you lost a job opportunity because your interviewer was incompetent, but I would recommend not asking "Is there any particular language you want me to use?" when they ask you to write pseudocode. They might think you don't know what the word means, which isn't that big of a deal, but leaves a bad impression.

[walshemj]

That person should never have been allowed to interview anyone in the first place.

[danielweber]

"That's not pseudocode..." he said as he started to berate me for not writing bash.

I, literally, just slapped my hand against my forehead loud enough to get people to look at me.

It's an understatement to say that, as a profession, we have poisoned the well when it comes to interviews.