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Coding Interview Preparation Bootcamp
- thedevindevops 8y agoWho is this article aimed at?
- chosenbreed 8y ago> Who is this article aimed at? Presumably at anybody looking to 'crack' the coding interview. Obviously not all of it is going to be relevant for every role but I found some useful things in there. At the very least I think it offers a structured approach on which to model your own preparation.
- Traubenfuchs 8y agoIt is sad to see the huge divergence between skills required for coding interviews and the skills required to be a good software developer/engineer.
- collyw 8y agoYes, ironically the better / more experienced I have become as a developer the worse i have become at algorithmic style questions. Why? Because I never use that stuff on the job. I make an effort to avoid complex code by proper database and application design. The only times i have ever needed to implement a sort algorithm are for interviews. When I design system, I don't do it in an interview time frame. I read the problem, and then go and do other stuff. Part of the design will become clearer to me a couple of days later, when I am cooking dinner or cycling to work - that stuff goes on in the background in my head. It's not an area where I find sharp focus useful, more a case of going through the many options at a slower pace is more useful.
- hknd 8y agoApparently it's still the best indicator for hiring engineers on large scale. It's proven that there is a big correlation between performing good during an coding interview and performing good during your day-to-day job. Ofc the coding interview is bad, but it's the best of all available (viable) options. tbh: most people say it's bad because interviewers focus on the optimal solution or something like that. Most of the time that's incorrect as an interview is literally capturing: "Can the candidate solve a difficult problem and transfer his thoughts into code, while being a nice guy to work with" disclaimer: I'm doing interviews for a faang company.
- scarface74 8y agoMy experience is that people who enjoy the “intellectually interesting” types of problems don’t have the stamina or discipline to get past the 80% mark and are easily distracted by the “ooh shiny”. Disclaimer: doing interviews outside of FAANG and not on the west coast - where the majority of developers are working.
- inasring 8y ago"It's proven that there is a big correlation between performing good during an coding interview and performing good during your day-to-day job"* *citation needed
- hknd 8y agoUnfortunately it's internal. All faang companies spend a lot of time and resources on hiring to make it more fair for everybody and to get signals faster. And nobody internally enjoys doing a lot of coding interviews - it's as frustrating for the interviewer as it is for the candidate. If there would be an easier way then these companies would definitely use it. A candidate usually has 5-7 interviews (if he is not failing the phone screen), which is 5-7 engineers spending at least 1 hour for the interview + 1 hour for the feedback. I am having 2-5 interviews per week, which means I spend between 4 and 10 hours per week just on hiring. If we could reduce this number we would definitely do it, as it's costing a loooot of money. To be fair: there is some innovation and traction in those areas, s.t. some candidate s do a coding project at home and then present their solution (to reduce the number of interviews).
- Kaveren 8y agoJust for context it seems the above user works at Google based on previous comments. The idea that Google has internal research indicating this wouldn't be surprising to me.
- vonmoltke 8y ago> The idea that Google has internal research indicating this wouldn't be surprising to me. The problem with internal research on these matters is the nearly total lack of negative examples. Depending on the quality of the pre-on-site screening the quality of candidates at that point might be so high that random selection might be just as good.
- invalidusernam3 8y agoIt's become ridiculous actually. I've been developing professionally for over a decade now and the past few times I've had interviews I've had to make sure I spend a few days preparing by brushing up on stuff I hardly use, but know will be asked in the interview. I get that it's hard to determine someones skill level, and people aren't prepared to spend multiple hours on practical tests (especially when having multiple interviews), but there must be a better way to interview.
- 0x00000000 8y agoI don't get why they don't do something like give you a computer with a terminal, a buggy program, and an internet connection and tell you to make it compile (or whatever the equivalent is for your domain) using whatever resources you want. Even knowing what to search for or what an error means or how to locate the source is actually like 95% of what most companies are even looking for but they're too much of cargo cult kool aid drinkers to realize it.
- mchannon 8y agoWikipedia has an excellent article on this under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination. Essentially, the system used to recruit candidates into the Imperial Chinese state bureaucracy was an-ever-more-elaborate progression of less- and less-relevant testing, and more- and more-gamable (and expensive) testing. If you thought getting quizzed about FizzBuzz was bad, imagine getting quizzed about Beowulf with the same degree of seriousness. "Intense pressure to succeed meant that cheating and corruption were rampant, often outrunning strenuous attempts to prevent or defeat them." "In the 19th century, critics blamed the imperial system, and in the process its examinations, for China's lack of technical knowledge and its defeat by foreign powers." This doesn't amount to any huge revelation to many of us when we're seeking jobs, nor any comfort, really. Maybe a little bit of solace that the coding interview you inexplicably failed, which had the trappings of a serious attempt to gauge your fit, but the actual behind-the-scenes decision-making progress involved the finesse you'd expect from a group of blindfolded monkeys throwing darts, will eventually pay a dividend for all the fat dumb and happy juggernauts in the bay. Amazon may be the Sears of the 21st century, but I strongly suspect it and its cohort will meet the same fate a century later and for the same reasons.
- ricardoreis 8y agoYou've nailed the psychological and intellectual rot at the heart of the tech interviewing craze quite eloquently. Thank you.
- ud0 8y agoTruer words have never been spoken.
- watwut 8y agoFizzBuzz is relevant to job. People complaining about izzBuzz havent had the pleasure of working with someone able to talk about development well while being unable to write simple code. Problem of FizzBUzz is that it is too easy, so folks get insulted. I have worked who are totally passionate and read all the blogs and can talk about all new buzzwords and techniques. Who simultaneously had problem write simple code. That is incomparable to Beowulf.
- kylnew 8y agoI imagine that the longer you’ve been coding in the real world, the harder it is to justify doing all this studying for interviews to get a similar job, especially if you aren’t motivated by money alone. Recently interviewed with one of the big ones and they were enamoured with my Swift and iOS dev knowledge but I’m not great with identifying graph questions. After many long internal discussions and even a letter of recommendation they passed/asked me if I was interested in other semi-technical roles at the company. In moments like this my sentiment is ‘take me or leave me’.
- NotANaN 8y agoI should start a bootcamp to help prospective students prepare to attend a bootcamp.
- Mc_Big_G 8y agoFunny to read this and look back at a recently downvoted comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18445332 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18445332