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I love to ask something that is simple to start with, and then build on it interactively with the candidate. One of my favorite questions is - Give me a normal
by nirajr 16y ago
I love to ask something that is simple to start with, and then build on it interactively with the candidate.
One of my favorite questions is - Give me a normalized database structure that you'll implement if you were to build gmail - incorporate conversations, messages, multiple message participants and labels.
Then, depending on the candidate, I build upon the question,and go into various optimizations possible, the ways caching would be implemented, sharding/splitting/de-normalization would be done with load, etc. etc. With good candidates, its always a very interesting discussion. And even the bad ones can leave the interview thinking they know something and don't need to feel bad :)
- ericflo 16y agoThis. A million times this. I do the same thing starting with a simple kernel, but keep growing it, throwing in monkey-wrenches, see how the candidate reasons and adapts. Good candidates will start recognizing and acknowledging trade-offs, whereas bad candidates will settle on one clear path. Good candidates will speak about the ideas they're trying to get across, whereas bad candidates will drop into talking about specific brands of technologies.
- nirajr 16y agoDefinitely. One candidate when faced with some questions on how he'll handle load said he'll switch to Oracle :) Promptly asked to leave. Good ones clearly show that they have the ability to deal with multiple tracks of ideas, know that trade-offs need to be taken care of, in general, have an approach that with some ingenuity, almost all problems are solvable. Thats the attitude I (and I guess you too) look for.