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The technical interview is not the only stage in the interview process. It might be better thought of as a way to filter out applicants who have poor innate abi

The technical interview is not the only stage in the interview process. It might be better thought of as a way to filter out applicants who have poor innate ability and/or poor learning skills. I would argue that being able to study leetcode and then apply that new knowledge you've learned is an important skill in and of itself in this industry. Isn't that what all of highschool and most of college is? Signalling that you a quick learner and a hard worker is important.

kortilla 7y ago
>It might be better thought of as a way to filter out applicants who have poor innate ability and/or poor learning skills. It’s a way to filter out people who haven’t had time to study leetcode style quiz questions. It has no relationship to learning skills or innate ability. There is no way to distinguish between someone who hasn’t spent time grinding algorithms and someone who had with poor learning skills. >I would argue that being able to study leetcode and then apply that new knowledge you've learned is an important skill in and of itself in this industry. Isn't that what all of highschool and most of college is? Nope, it demonstrates that you had time to waste, nothing more. Candidates that built actual software to accomplish something are much more impressive because it shows they can write software attached to reality.
- Apocryphon 7y ago
  And just like the standardized test rigamarole, technical interviews can be gamed by investing in prep courses and materials for those who are willing to dump the money and time on them.
  - cmonnow 7y ago
    It's like saying "This guy spent 4 years in college trying to get a 4.0 GPA. Clearly, he only did it to game the system and get a good job/career. So I won't hire him" A person willing to spend time and money preparing to succeed in a scenario that exists in real life (pass interviews), is one of the types of persons I want to hire.
    - Apocryphon 7y ago
      The situation clearly becomes complicated when an ostensibly purely meritocratic measure becomes something that those with means can improve. If there was free and quality standardized test prep / technical interview prep for all, and then it was just a matter of dedicating enough spare time for the latter, then you might have a better case that it's good. Though you're also ignoring the fact that people have a limited amount of time/energy to devote to that, such as in the case as engineers with children. Not to mention, Goodhart's law and all that.
      - closeparen 7y ago
        >New data shows studying for the SAT for 20 hours on free Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy is associated with an average score gain of 115 points, nearly double the average score gain compared to students who don’t use Khan Academy. Out of nearly 250,000 test-takers studied, more than 16,000 gained 200 points or more between the PSAT/NMSQT and SAT … https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/05/09/can-coaching-truly-boost-sat-scores-for-years-the-college-board-said-no-now-it-says-yes/?utm_term=.2fce2a7d25ae https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/05/...
      - yoz-y 7y ago
        I have recently passed several technical interviews at multiple large companies. The first one I botched completely. Then I looked at some algorithmic courses from Princeton on Coursera and passed the rest of the interviews in a breeze. My point is, there _are_ free and good quality courses out there and if you have enough experience with actual work then it is just a matter of brushing up on the foundation. In the end I’m glad that I did.
        zimpenfish 7y ago
        > there _are_ free and good quality courses out there Free only if you discount the cost of your time.
        cmonnow 7y ago

kortilla 7y ago

>It might be better thought of as a way to filter out applicants who have poor innate ability and/or poor learning skills. It’s a way to filter out people who haven’t had time to study leetcode style quiz questions. It has no relationship to learning skills or innate ability. There is no way to distinguish between someone who hasn’t spent time grinding algorithms and someone who had with poor learning skills. >I would argue that being able to study leetcode and then apply that new knowledge you've learned is an important skill in and of itself in this industry. Isn't that what all of highschool and most of college is? Nope, it demonstrates that you had time to waste, nothing more. Candidates that built actual software to accomplish something are much more impressive because it shows they can write software attached to reality.

Apocryphon 7y ago
And just like the standardized test rigamarole, technical interviews can be gamed by investing in prep courses and materials for those who are willing to dump the money and time on them.
- cmonnow 7y ago
  It's like saying "This guy spent 4 years in college trying to get a 4.0 GPA. Clearly, he only did it to game the system and get a good job/career. So I won't hire him" A person willing to spend time and money preparing to succeed in a scenario that exists in real life (pass interviews), is one of the types of persons I want to hire.
  - Apocryphon 7y ago
    The situation clearly becomes complicated when an ostensibly purely meritocratic measure becomes something that those with means can improve. If there was free and quality standardized test prep / technical interview prep for all, and then it was just a matter of dedicating enough spare time for the latter, then you might have a better case that it's good. Though you're also ignoring the fact that people have a limited amount of time/energy to devote to that, such as in the case as engineers with children. Not to mention, Goodhart's law and all that.
    - closeparen 7y ago
      >New data shows studying for the SAT for 20 hours on free Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy is associated with an average score gain of 115 points, nearly double the average score gain compared to students who don’t use Khan Academy. Out of nearly 250,000 test-takers studied, more than 16,000 gained 200 points or more between the PSAT/NMSQT and SAT … https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/05/09/can-coaching-truly-boost-sat-scores-for-years-the-college-board-said-no-now-it-says-yes/?utm_term=.2fce2a7d25ae https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/05/...
    - yoz-y 7y ago
      I have recently passed several technical interviews at multiple large companies. The first one I botched completely. Then I looked at some algorithmic courses from Princeton on Coursera and passed the rest of the interviews in a breeze. My point is, there _are_ free and good quality courses out there and if you have enough experience with actual work then it is just a matter of brushing up on the foundation. In the end I’m glad that I did.
      - zimpenfish 7y ago
        > there _are_ free and good quality courses out there Free only if you discount the cost of your time.
        cmonnow 7y ago