4 ms·
This is how dumb these interviews are. "We expect you to study and be prepared for algorithmic questions, BUT NOT TOO PREPARED! Only just enough. We will give
by baskethead 5y ago
This is how dumb these interviews are.
"We expect you to study and be prepared for algorithmic questions, BUT NOT TOO PREPARED! Only just enough. We will give you a random question of our choosing, but if you already studied this, then you will be deducted points, unless you tell us, so that we can ask you a question you've never studied before."
A true interview would give the candidate their choice of question with the expectation that they know how to solve the question. It makes it a lot fairer for everyone involved.
- thaumasiotes 5y agoI was always kind of confused about how advice for interviewers always comes along with warnings of the type "Some people talk a good game about programming, but they can't actually do it. You have to watch out for these people. Never hire one. This is the biggest trap you can stumble into as an interviewer." After getting some interview coaching, I think I understand how this complaint arose. The whole problem is an artifact of the interview format, in which the design intent is for the candidate to be unable to solve the problem on their own. So you get scored based on how well you can charm the answer out of your interviewer while making them feel like everything they said was your idea. Instead of a test of how well you can program or solve math problems, it's a test of how good you are at cold reading. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading ) And unsurprisingly, a test of cold reading will end up delivering people who are good at cold reading without reference to whether they're good at other things. If you want to avoid this problem, just start giving assessments that don't involve interaction with the interviewer.