7 ms·

My response to such questions is usually along the lines 'Sorry, didn't realize I was interviewing for my ability to perform 5-second google searches.' If 'get

My response to such questions is usually along the lines 'Sorry, didn't realize I was interviewing for my ability to perform 5-second google searches.' If 'getting the job' in that instance is the metric of success, then it doesn't work well at all, but in quality-of-life terms it's served me well.

derekdahmer 10y ago
Being passive aggressive in an interview will never get you the job. Huge red flag on the hiring side. If you don'the like the interview style enough to not want the job, just politely leave.
- angryredblock 10y ago
  If you're happy to allow fellow humans to continue along a poor path, sure. I believe in establishing feedback loops and giving people opportunities to grow. Tongue-in-cheek aside, of course passive-aggressive isn't the ideal path to improving interview processes. :P
- kafkaesq 10y ago
  It's pretty clear that the commenter's intent was not to turn the interview around and get hired, with that remark.
  - Crito 10y ago
    Why be rude to the interviewer even if that is the case? What does such juvenile rudeness accomplish? Is it genuinely offensive to be asked the complexity of bubble sort? If such a question causes you so much offense that you lash out involuntarily, then you have some serious personal problems to work out.
    - kafkaesq 10y ago
      Is it genuinely offensive to be asked the complexity of bubble sort? Offensive, no. Just trite and tedious. And more fundamentally, simply not indicative of the high quality, (genuinely) cerebral environment the interview subject, back in the original article, is looking for. Why be rude to the interviewer even if that is the case? I get that it's generally better to be polite. But when the same kinds of tedious and disspiriting (and sometimes downright condescending, and/or simply time-wasting) behaviors come down the interviewing pipe, over and over again... I can understand the temptation to bypass decorum, and allow a gut-level, emotional response to surface. Being as while we might generally prefer to keep things professional -- we're not potted plants, either.
    - crdoconnor 10y ago
      >What does such juvenile rudeness accomplish? If a few more people were genuinely afraid of being humiliated for blindly cargo culting google's hiring practices it might go out of fashion quicker. At least, that's my hope. Which is why I usually tease people for doing this (yes, that upsets them).
      - Crito 10y ago
        >humiliated I think you need to pause, take a step back, and consider who is actually making an ass out of themselves in that situation.
        crdoconnor 10y ago
        Put it this way: stupid people on a power trip can say some stupid things when they're angry at having their authority challenged. I've relayed those things word for word on to the non-technical boss when they subsequently come into the room to ask 'team fit' questions. It's more effective when you're over-the-top polite when you set the trap with leading questions though. Trolling gives me a bit of mild amusement in what is otherwise a dud investment of my time. The only people who seem to have a problem with that are people who have an exaggerated respect for authority figures (always unhealthy). If, on the other hand, the interview process is obviously relevant to the job at hand and thorough I go out of my way to compliment the interviewer to their boss even if I know I failed.
    - ubernostrum 10y ago
      I've given interviewers a piece of my mind before. Frankly, most interviewing practices, even at places which allegedly are highly selective, boil down to 100% cargo-culting, and when I encounter that I have no issue with telling the interviewer that and hanging up or walking out. At that point in the interview I'm not there to validate their approach or make sure they feel good; I'm there to communicate to them what I know, and what I know -- from experience -- is how useless most of the common interview processes are.
    - eropple 10y ago
      Literally two seconds on Github will prove out that, yes, I can write code. That means we should be talking about something substantiative rather than wasting my time. So turn it around: why should I respect an interviewer who isn't respecting me? (I should note that, as a consultant, nobody ever asks me to whiteboard some code for them, despite often committing into their own repos and doing work that is no less important to them as a company. Almost like the hoop jumping is just some power-move crap on the part of the interviewer.)
- hueving 10y ago
  If you're being passive aggressive, you've already signaled that you don't want it but you are taking the opportunity to point out to the interviewer how small-minded they are to make them reflect on the fact that they wasted their time as well as yours. Politely leaving without saying anything doesn't improve the situation for anyone. These pop-quiz questions need to be stopped.
eveningcoffee 10y ago
I think you are missing the point. If you do not know such things then how are you going to take them into account when you have to solve a problem?
- dajohnson89 10y ago
  These facts can be easily googled.
  - eveningcoffee 10y ago
    Yes, if you take them as just mere facts. But if you are not aware of CAP theorem and its implications then how do you know that you should google it?
    - striking 10y ago
      I haven't received a formal education in CS, and I know about CAP and what it means. Reading the Aphyr "Jepsen" series is what helped me learn it... when I was still in high school. And this was necessary because I was curious about which database I needed to use for a particular side project I was writing. It's totally possible to just Google "bubble sort complexity" or "CAP" and learn about it.
      - eveningcoffee 10y ago
        Just to assure that my point was well understood. Yes, you can today easily find quite a lot of information and learn about it, but this was not the situation the original poster lamented about. The claim was that when faced with such question, one can just google it and read the answer. Problem solved. Because these are just some random facts like who is the president of France. My point was that in my opinion these questions actually probe the general understanding about the CS field.
    - hnbroseph 10y ago
      if someone is unaware of CAP, they're unlikely to have been working in an environment where it was relevant. if this same person starts working in an environment where it's relevant, i'd wager that it will be hard to remain unaware.

derekdahmer 10y ago

Being passive aggressive in an interview will never get you the job. Huge red flag on the hiring side. If you don'the like the interview style enough to not want the job, just politely leave.

angryredblock 10y ago
If you're happy to allow fellow humans to continue along a poor path, sure. I believe in establishing feedback loops and giving people opportunities to grow. Tongue-in-cheek aside, of course passive-aggressive isn't the ideal path to improving interview processes. :P
kafkaesq 10y ago
It's pretty clear that the commenter's intent was not to turn the interview around and get hired, with that remark.
- Crito 10y ago
  Why be rude to the interviewer even if that is the case? What does such juvenile rudeness accomplish? Is it genuinely offensive to be asked the complexity of bubble sort? If such a question causes you so much offense that you lash out involuntarily, then you have some serious personal problems to work out.
  - kafkaesq 10y ago
    Is it genuinely offensive to be asked the complexity of bubble sort? Offensive, no. Just trite and tedious. And more fundamentally, simply not indicative of the high quality, (genuinely) cerebral environment the interview subject, back in the original article, is looking for. Why be rude to the interviewer even if that is the case? I get that it's generally better to be polite. But when the same kinds of tedious and disspiriting (and sometimes downright condescending, and/or simply time-wasting) behaviors come down the interviewing pipe, over and over again... I can understand the temptation to bypass decorum, and allow a gut-level, emotional response to surface. Being as while we might generally prefer to keep things professional -- we're not potted plants, either.
  - crdoconnor 10y ago
    >What does such juvenile rudeness accomplish? If a few more people were genuinely afraid of being humiliated for blindly cargo culting google's hiring practices it might go out of fashion quicker. At least, that's my hope. Which is why I usually tease people for doing this (yes, that upsets them).
    - Crito 10y ago
      >humiliated I think you need to pause, take a step back, and consider who is actually making an ass out of themselves in that situation.
      - crdoconnor 10y ago
        Put it this way: stupid people on a power trip can say some stupid things when they're angry at having their authority challenged. I've relayed those things word for word on to the non-technical boss when they subsequently come into the room to ask 'team fit' questions. It's more effective when you're over-the-top polite when you set the trap with leading questions though. Trolling gives me a bit of mild amusement in what is otherwise a dud investment of my time. The only people who seem to have a problem with that are people who have an exaggerated respect for authority figures (always unhealthy). If, on the other hand, the interview process is obviously relevant to the job at hand and thorough I go out of my way to compliment the interviewer to their boss even if I know I failed.
  - ubernostrum 10y ago
    I've given interviewers a piece of my mind before. Frankly, most interviewing practices, even at places which allegedly are highly selective, boil down to 100% cargo-culting, and when I encounter that I have no issue with telling the interviewer that and hanging up or walking out. At that point in the interview I'm not there to validate their approach or make sure they feel good; I'm there to communicate to them what I know, and what I know -- from experience -- is how useless most of the common interview processes are.
  - eropple 10y ago
    Literally two seconds on Github will prove out that, yes, I can write code. That means we should be talking about something substantiative rather than wasting my time. So turn it around: why should I respect an interviewer who isn't respecting me? (I should note that, as a consultant, nobody ever asks me to whiteboard some code for them, despite often committing into their own repos and doing work that is no less important to them as a company. Almost like the hoop jumping is just some power-move crap on the part of the interviewer.)
hueving 10y ago
If you're being passive aggressive, you've already signaled that you don't want it but you are taking the opportunity to point out to the interviewer how small-minded they are to make them reflect on the fact that they wasted their time as well as yours. Politely leaving without saying anything doesn't improve the situation for anyone. These pop-quiz questions need to be stopped.

eveningcoffee 10y ago

I think you are missing the point. If you do not know such things then how are you going to take them into account when you have to solve a problem?

dajohnson89 10y ago
These facts can be easily googled.
- eveningcoffee 10y ago
  Yes, if you take them as just mere facts. But if you are not aware of CAP theorem and its implications then how do you know that you should google it?
  - striking 10y ago
    I haven't received a formal education in CS, and I know about CAP and what it means. Reading the Aphyr "Jepsen" series is what helped me learn it... when I was still in high school. And this was necessary because I was curious about which database I needed to use for a particular side project I was writing. It's totally possible to just Google "bubble sort complexity" or "CAP" and learn about it.
    - eveningcoffee 10y ago
      Just to assure that my point was well understood. Yes, you can today easily find quite a lot of information and learn about it, but this was not the situation the original poster lamented about. The claim was that when faced with such question, one can just google it and read the answer. Problem solved. Because these are just some random facts like who is the president of France. My point was that in my opinion these questions actually probe the general understanding about the CS field.
  - hnbroseph 10y ago
    if someone is unaware of CAP, they're unlikely to have been working in an environment where it was relevant. if this same person starts working in an environment where it's relevant, i'd wager that it will be hard to remain unaware.