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Someone who able to immediately understand and write out the solution to 80% of hard DS&A questions is at least able to write code. The question is if this is h

by u67583 6y ago

Someone who able to immediately understand and write out the solution to 80% of hard DS&A questions is at least able to write code. The question is if this is honestly better than generating your own FizzBuzz. I don't think so. I have heard rumors that Google has studied employee performance predictions based on interview score and found no correlation. I would bet this is an open secret and no one knows what to replace it with that isn't enormously expensive.

Apocryphon 6y ago
> no one knows what to replace it with that isn't enormously expensive That's the crazy thing about this. FAANG has near-infinite resources, relatively speaking. Google could be A/B testing their interviewing process, experimenting new approaches, experimenting (as the OP study did) with eye-trackers and other tech to try to gain insights on candidate behavior. They have the "engineering for the sake of engineering" and "innovation for the sake of innovation" culture that allows for moonshots and boondoggles. I don't think they're exactly known for following "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", given how many times they kill off products only to recreate them later on, especially their chat apps. Yet they stick to the traditional whiteboarding method because-- why?
- starpilot 6y ago
  Maybe Google has studied all of those things and found whiteboarding to be the best predictor. The company seems to be doing well, so something must be working with their hiring. They dropped GPA/college requirements so they're clearly open to non-traditional backgrounds.
  - Apocryphon 6y ago
    > The company seems to be doing well, so something must be working with their hiring. People use this argument often, but is technical competence of engineers- specifically at passing their interview process -the explanation for their economic success? And not market penetration, near-monopoly positions, great UX, etc.? Not to mention, as we've seen in the high-profile Facebook SDK crashes this past week, share price doesn't necessarily mean product quality.
    - pb7 6y ago
      >Not to mention, as we've seen in the high-profile Facebook SDK crashes this past week, share price doesn't necessarily mean product quality. These events are noteworthy because of how rare they are for such a large software-based company.
      - Apocryphon 6y ago
        It was the second time it's happened in a matter of months- the first time was in May. It's also noteworthy because of how destabilizing this was for the immense number of apps that depend on that software.

by u67583 6y ago

Apocryphon 6y ago

> no one knows what to replace it with that isn't enormously expensive That's the crazy thing about this. FAANG has near-infinite resources, relatively speaking. Google could be A/B testing their interviewing process, experimenting new approaches, experimenting (as the OP study did) with eye-trackers and other tech to try to gain insights on candidate behavior. They have the "engineering for the sake of engineering" and "innovation for the sake of innovation" culture that allows for moonshots and boondoggles. I don't think they're exactly known for following "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", given how many times they kill off products only to recreate them later on, especially their chat apps. Yet they stick to the traditional whiteboarding method because-- why?

starpilot 6y ago
Maybe Google has studied all of those things and found whiteboarding to be the best predictor. The company seems to be doing well, so something must be working with their hiring. They dropped GPA/college requirements so they're clearly open to non-traditional backgrounds.
- Apocryphon 6y ago
  > The company seems to be doing well, so something must be working with their hiring. People use this argument often, but is technical competence of engineers- specifically at passing their interview process -the explanation for their economic success? And not market penetration, near-monopoly positions, great UX, etc.? Not to mention, as we've seen in the high-profile Facebook SDK crashes this past week, share price doesn't necessarily mean product quality.
  - pb7 6y ago
    >Not to mention, as we've seen in the high-profile Facebook SDK crashes this past week, share price doesn't necessarily mean product quality. These events are noteworthy because of how rare they are for such a large software-based company.
    - Apocryphon 6y ago
      It was the second time it's happened in a matter of months- the first time was in May. It's also noteworthy because of how destabilizing this was for the immense number of apps that depend on that software.