29 ms·

I had it to read it a few times to. I think they were trying to say that database was so small that obviously you wouldn't need to think about distributed syste

by rcpt 5y ago

I had it to read it a few times to. I think they were trying to say that database was so small that obviously you wouldn't need to think about distributed systems. I'd be surprised if that was the reason they failed the interview.

shadowgovt 5y ago
That's a common way I see well-educated candidates fail our interviews. What happens is that they only have N minutes to do the whole interview... If they burn twenty minutes of that time gaming out whether the DB needs redundancy, multi-tier storage, and synchronization, they don't have time to actually show me the algorithm that will generate the data to go in the database, and that's what I'm hiring them for. "Is the database the right shape" is rarely a problem at our scale.
- jrochkind1 5y ago
  Have you considered giving them a hint, that you primarily are looking for the algorithm that will generate the data?
  - shadowgovt 5y ago
    I have, often. People get nerves in an interview and don't always hear what the interview is saying, I think.
    - jrochkind1 5y ago
      That much is true. I get so nervous in technical interviews, and it has definitely lost me some jobs I am confident I had the technical skills for.
    - ryandrake 5y ago
      Some candidates also can get into this “word salad” mode, where they just talk and talk, and don’t listen to what you are saying. They have their script and talking points and just go on autopilot, filling every silence with words and words. You can give them obvious hints and cues: “Just give me the simplest answer and we will go from there!” …and they launch right back into 5 more minutes straight of talking. As an interviewer, I have to manage our time appropriately so we can get into all the questions, and will sometimes even have to firmly say “STOP TALKING. Unfortunately we need to move on to the next question.”
ALittleLight 5y ago
It could be. If you ask the candidate to fizzbuzz and they think the solution is a key-value database of number to fizzbuzz pairs, and then they wonder, "Hey, could that fit into memory?" That kind of answer could raise multiple flags.

by rcpt 5y ago

shadowgovt 5y ago

That's a common way I see well-educated candidates fail our interviews. What happens is that they only have N minutes to do the whole interview... If they burn twenty minutes of that time gaming out whether the DB needs redundancy, multi-tier storage, and synchronization, they don't have time to actually show me the algorithm that will generate the data to go in the database, and that's what I'm hiring them for. "Is the database the right shape" is rarely a problem at our scale.

jrochkind1 5y ago
Have you considered giving them a hint, that you primarily are looking for the algorithm that will generate the data?
- shadowgovt 5y ago
  I have, often. People get nerves in an interview and don't always hear what the interview is saying, I think.
  - jrochkind1 5y ago
    That much is true. I get so nervous in technical interviews, and it has definitely lost me some jobs I am confident I had the technical skills for.
  - ryandrake 5y ago
    Some candidates also can get into this “word salad” mode, where they just talk and talk, and don’t listen to what you are saying. They have their script and talking points and just go on autopilot, filling every silence with words and words. You can give them obvious hints and cues: “Just give me the simplest answer and we will go from there!” …and they launch right back into 5 more minutes straight of talking. As an interviewer, I have to manage our time appropriately so we can get into all the questions, and will sometimes even have to firmly say “STOP TALKING. Unfortunately we need to move on to the next question.”

ALittleLight 5y ago

It could be. If you ask the candidate to fizzbuzz and they think the solution is a key-value database of number to fizzbuzz pairs, and then they wonder, "Hey, could that fit into memory?" That kind of answer could raise multiple flags.