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We are not paying you to SOLVE the problem with those constraints. We are simply evaluating how you APPROACH a problem with those constraints. If given such a

We are not paying you to SOLVE the problem with those constraints. We are simply evaluating how you APPROACH a problem with those constraints. If given such a problem, you throw your hands up in the air, or give me a lecture about how such a problem does not occur in real life, or how it doesn't represent your best-self, that itself tells a lot about you. My question, as I repeat in other comments is this : WHY do you feel stressed ? Delve into your psyche for just 1 minute and it will boil down to - fear of being judged as incompetent. All we are looking for is someone who can set aside this fear TEMPORARILY. You don't feel pressure if your mom throws you this problem, right ? Can you do the same even if a million people are watching, but just for 2 minutes ? Even if we throw you a NP-Hard problem, can you objectively spend 2 minutes thinking about it, talking another 2 minutes about how you'd approach it, and then saying, 'This looks like it's beyond my skillset' - That clarity of thinking, mastery of fear, and blatant honesty is worth a hundred github apache open source projects. People who can't do this lack the maturity to understand that in real-life, nobody really gives a damn about our achievements and failures except us (and very close relatives of course).

Huggernaut 7y ago
I think you are kidding yourself if you think the majority of these companies are satisfied with an answer consisting of "This looks like it's beyond my skillset". All things considered, they are going to progress the candidate who can solve the problem because it's an early stage test. I wouldn't feel pressure if my mom threw me the problem, but I still probably wouldn't be able to come up with a solution (or even approach anything useful in a reasonable amount of time) that would satisfy an interviewer because frankly, I'm terrible at it and haven't spent the time to get good, just like many, many other successful developers. Stress is only one aspect of these that people dislike.
deleted 7y ago
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invalidOrTaken 7y ago
>All we are looking for is someone who can set aside this fear TEMPORARILY. Why should I do this? Fear is a survival signal, why should I ignore it? It's not fear of the problem, it's fear of the company. And is this not a justified fear? You say not to be afraid of being judged, but isn't that the entire purpose of the interview? Now, there is a scenario I can imagine where I have some pride invested and am willing to be a fearless engineering badass, the developer equivalent of a Marine. But the Marines are loyal back in return, never leaving a man behind, etc. I'd also happily attempt such a problem for my mom, because I know our relationship isn't dependent on this particular problem. Is your company going to be as loyal as the Marines, or love me unconditionally like my mom?

Huggernaut 7y ago

I think you are kidding yourself if you think the majority of these companies are satisfied with an answer consisting of "This looks like it's beyond my skillset". All things considered, they are going to progress the candidate who can solve the problem because it's an early stage test. I wouldn't feel pressure if my mom threw me the problem, but I still probably wouldn't be able to come up with a solution (or even approach anything useful in a reasonable amount of time) that would satisfy an interviewer because frankly, I'm terrible at it and haven't spent the time to get good, just like many, many other successful developers. Stress is only one aspect of these that people dislike.

deleted 7y ago

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invalidOrTaken 7y ago

>All we are looking for is someone who can set aside this fear TEMPORARILY. Why should I do this? Fear is a survival signal, why should I ignore it? It's not fear of the problem, it's fear of the company. And is this not a justified fear? You say not to be afraid of being judged, but isn't that the entire purpose of the interview? Now, there is a scenario I can imagine where I have some pride invested and am willing to be a fearless engineering badass, the developer equivalent of a Marine. But the Marines are loyal back in return, never leaving a man behind, etc. I'd also happily attempt such a problem for my mom, because I know our relationship isn't dependent on this particular problem. Is your company going to be as loyal as the Marines, or love me unconditionally like my mom?