4 ms·

Ego Trip is the right phrase. A lot of the traditional algorithms puzzler interviews amount to the material being covered in an adversarial, closed-book fashion

Ego Trip is the right phrase. A lot of the traditional algorithms puzzler interviews amount to the material being covered in an adversarial, closed-book fashion for the interviewee, after the interviewer has themselves gotten to master the material in a "at your leisure" fashion with an open book. I wouldn't mind getting asked nasty questions about red-black trees or Krushkal vs Prim or something if I knew the person sitting across from me had taken a "pass this test under these same conditions or you're fired" type scenario. It wouldn't make these interviews a good idea, but it's the reek of hypocrisy about them that puts it over the top for me. I still contend these interviews - in any form - are a hazing exercise designed to convince you that your own expertise doesn't really matter. You may think of yourself as a accomplished professional developer but to BigCo you are a Smart Person (?) Grade N to be slotted into an arbitrary role. What better way to convey this message than put you through an interview that you would have been best equipped to pass straight out of university or grad school? I suspect my peak "pass the tech interview" would have been straight out of the core courses mid-PhD and my ability to do this has since gone down every year.

pmiller2 6y ago
> I wouldn't mind getting asked nasty questions about red-black trees or Krushkal vs Prim or something if I knew the person sitting across from me had taken a "pass this test under these same conditions or you're fired" type scenario. It wouldn't make these interviews a good idea, but it's the reek of hypocrisy about them that puts it over the top for me. The only equivalent I know of this is a PhD oral comprehensive exam. I get your point regarding the hypocrisy of it all, but I don't think I would be into it, even if my interviewer had a PhD and had done something similar.
commandlinefan 6y ago
> Ego Trip is the right phrase Well, here's the thing about that, though... somebody does eventually pass these interviews. It may be a tough blow to your own ego to realize that you actually weren't the best candidate out there, or that somebody more qualified than you would be willing to accept a position that you yourself are just qualified enough for, but probing the competence of the candidate is entirely the point of a job interview. This is doubly important for a technical position where a false positive is orders of magnitude more damaging than a false negative.
- glangdale 6y ago
  I like how you are assuming that I'm writing this out of sour grapes. I've never failed a technical interview. As always, there are an ample supply of folks (of, ahem, rather varying achievement levels) on Hacker News who always seem to fondly imagine themselves on peering dubiously over their glasses at my while I supplicate for a job. :-) Maybe you could try to apply the supposed Hacker News rule of not assuming the person you are responding to is a complete idiot? I'm startled to think that you assume that I wouldn't understand that interviews are typically competitive processes where some people get hired in the end and (at sufficiently desirable jobs) most people don't. Instead, you could maybe think through whether "competence" == "ability to pass typical BigCo coding interviews" and my actual point? Really, basically any of my points? I have met, and worked with, people in all 4 quadrants of that particular pair of qualities.

pmiller2 6y ago

> I wouldn't mind getting asked nasty questions about red-black trees or Krushkal vs Prim or something if I knew the person sitting across from me had taken a "pass this test under these same conditions or you're fired" type scenario. It wouldn't make these interviews a good idea, but it's the reek of hypocrisy about them that puts it over the top for me. The only equivalent I know of this is a PhD oral comprehensive exam. I get your point regarding the hypocrisy of it all, but I don't think I would be into it, even if my interviewer had a PhD and had done something similar.

commandlinefan 6y ago

> Ego Trip is the right phrase Well, here's the thing about that, though... somebody does eventually pass these interviews. It may be a tough blow to your own ego to realize that you actually weren't the best candidate out there, or that somebody more qualified than you would be willing to accept a position that you yourself are just qualified enough for, but probing the competence of the candidate is entirely the point of a job interview. This is doubly important for a technical position where a false positive is orders of magnitude more damaging than a false negative.

glangdale 6y ago
I like how you are assuming that I'm writing this out of sour grapes. I've never failed a technical interview. As always, there are an ample supply of folks (of, ahem, rather varying achievement levels) on Hacker News who always seem to fondly imagine themselves on peering dubiously over their glasses at my while I supplicate for a job. :-) Maybe you could try to apply the supposed Hacker News rule of not assuming the person you are responding to is a complete idiot? I'm startled to think that you assume that I wouldn't understand that interviews are typically competitive processes where some people get hired in the end and (at sufficiently desirable jobs) most people don't. Instead, you could maybe think through whether "competence" == "ability to pass typical BigCo coding interviews" and my actual point? Really, basically any of my points? I have met, and worked with, people in all 4 quadrants of that particular pair of qualities.