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I ask tech questions in interviews as a litmus test (for any given concept) and it always relates directly to the work being done so they can get a feel of the
by ulkesh 5y ago
I ask tech questions in interviews as a litmus test (for any given concept) and it always relates directly to the work being done so they can get a feel of the kind of code they would be writing and maintaining.
As an example -- in my line of work, one task we perform is processing files, some small, some medium, some very large; and I wanted to make sure a candidate understood the concept of Maps in order to perform O(n) to create a map and O(1) to look up items (generally speaking, I'm sure it's not exactly that in practice), which aide in efficient processing (the age old processor vs memory tradeoff). This particular candidate got everything I asked immediately, and the interview was very short. The person was made an offer soon after and has gone on to learn what we've done, adapt, and also teach us some things that have made the software better.
And the moment candidates grok the concepts I'm after, I confirm that's what I was after, and move on, trying not to waste too much time on any given item. And if they don't get the concepts after a short while, I try to lead them there and see how they react (is it a lightbulb moment or a confusion moment, etc). These are all signs for me to determine if someone is right for the position.
Interviewing is a 2-way street of respect. The interviewer often has all the perceived power, but in my experience, a good interviewer eschews that perception right from the get-go and lets the interviewee know that this is more of a discussion than any kind of trickery or exam, even when it contains coding questions.
This is why I will never interview for Google or any other company that has multi-stage interviews and also employs time-wasteful, and sometimes esoteric, methods such as "How many jelly beans fit in a school bus?"
- SCUSKU 5y agoI wholeheartedly agree with your idea of having a 2-way street of respect, and treating interviews less like interrogations and more like discussions. It certainly feels more natural that way, and puts less pressure on the interviewee. Regarding Google specifically, I just interviewed there about 2 weeks ago, and although I didn't get the job, I will say I felt very respected, and with the exception of maybe one interview, thought everything felt like a discussion. There were no trick questions, everything was fairly straightforward. Basically a leetcode medium/hard for the 4 technicals and just discussing my experiences in various situations for the "Googleyness" interview. I have heard similar stories about Google using these trick questions, but from what I understand these were mistakes made in the earlier days of the company and have been effectively phased out, although that is purely speculative.
- grepfru_it 5y ago>This is why I will never interview for Google or any other company that has multi-stage interviews and also employs time-wasteful, and sometimes esoteric, methods such as "How many jelly beans fit in a school bus?" I said this once upon a time. then I realized I like money and I'm willing to dance a jig if thats what will get me beaucoup RSUs to fund my personal startup venture
- ulkesh 5y agoI get paid well where I'm at right now. I live a pretty good life. I don't begrudge anyone who works for Google or any other tech giant, I simply set my own standards and I live by them. I find it is a waste of time for me to interview at places that try those kinds of gimmickry. And from what others are saying, it looks like Google doesn't do that anymore nor does it sound like it was widespread, so it may have been simply anecdotal accounts I remember reading.
- w0mbat 5y ago> I will never interview for Google or any other company that > asks questions like "How many jelly beans fit in a school bus?" I conducted more than 100 interviews at Google and saw the questions the other interviewers on each panel asked. Google does not ask questions like that.
- ulkesh 5y agoGood to hear. They have done that in the past, though, I've read a few first-hand accounts of it (and sadly I cannot find them now so take it with a grain of salt, of course). Perhaps it was just early-days.
- mixmastamyk 5y agoYes, that's the circa 2005 version of what we have today. If you at least tried you could still get an offer however, unlike today, where the answer must be approaching perfection and timely. Because they are a lot more interested in exposing impostors both real and imagined than hiring.
- jldugger 5y ago> This is why I will never interview for Google or any other company that has multi-stage interviews and also employs time-wasteful, and sometimes esoteric, methods such as "How many jelly beans fit in a school bus?" Good news: they don't do that any more. Bad news: you still need to practice the fermi estimation techniques that question employs, but also need to know like, the details of every paper they've published on distributed systems, and bring your own heuristics about computers and email in order to determine how big a GFS cluster you need to launch gmail. Is that better? I'm not so sure.