5 ms·

> It’s about the person’s behavior, the way he/she interacts with you. It’s about the person’s culture, tabs vs space, and that kind of things. And it’s mostly

> It’s about the person’s behavior, the way he/she interacts with you. It’s about the person’s culture, tabs vs space, and that kind of things. And it’s mostly about whether you like the person or not Not in FAANG or famous startups it's not. You're either gonna solve 3-6 medium hard Leetcode questions perfectly or you're out. Sure, liking you will help you better not come off as a douche - but you're not gonna get an offer without being able to solve (unless it's some kind of a diversity hire).

sitkack 4y ago
Interview technical folks at a FAANG and I don't asking leetcode questions. It isn't a SWE role but people should be SWE material. I do ask them to * read code * extend some working code with a new feature * parse some semi-structured text into a data structure Programming interviews suck for everyone, even the interviewer. I feel absolutely horrible when someone locks up, or fails really hard. The questions I ask aren't hard but half don't pass. What folks should do is practice coding in front of someone. Writing little exploratory snippets and understand the base library of the language they claim to know. I don't even ask people to vocalize while they are working on the problem. And I solve it at the same time they are and if they get stuck, I show them some of my code. I had one person start crying they put so much pressure on themselves, I had to take a two week break from interviewing after that.
- weatherlite 4y ago
  I was referring to SWE roles, as is this article I believe.
  - sitkack 4y ago
    They aren't technically SWEs but they would be at any other company. I have been a SWE at three other FAANGs
    - weatherlite 4y ago
      > I have been a SWE at three other FAANGs Good for you. Now seriously I'm not sure what you're arguing for - you're saying FAANGS don't do Leetcode style questions? I get it that YOU don't do it to candidates in those roles, but the reality is for SWE roles this is how it is. People who aren't very good in Leetcode will not succeed. There's hundreds, maybe thousands of candidates for these roles and some of them can do the Leetcode thing - they are the ones who get hired. I'm not advocating for this method because I'm not particularly good at it or like solving these things on my spare time, nor do I think this method is particularly useful - but that's reality.
      - Jensson 4y ago
        I know Google has some tech support engineering roles where they ask such simple questions to candidates. They aren't software engineers and generally don' get to contribute to the main codebase, but they help customers fix problems with how they use Google API's etc so they need to know a bit about how to code.
- lapcat 4y ago
  > I had one person start crying they put so much pressure on themselves, I had to take a two week break from interviewing after that. This is a sign that the hiring process is broken. It's not testing skill level, it's testing anxiety level.
  - native_samples 4y ago
    The second sentence may be true but the former isn't. People who break down and cry in interviews are rare but if they do it, they are best avoided and it was good that the interview revealed this. You cannot have that happening on the job but if they can't handle being asked to program something whilst up against a time limit or being watched, they're going to have breakdowns in other situations too.
    - lapcat 4y ago
      I've written at length about this before, so I'll just give a link instead of repeating the whole screed, but it's a misconception to equate interview anxiety with job anxiety. They're distinct and not necessarily correlated. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31377459 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31377459
      - sitkack 4y ago
        Thanks for taking the time to write that. I agree. Interviewing is a horrible crap shoot and would say even cruel by construction.
      - native_samples 4y ago
        It's obviously unpopular, but the brutal reality is that the vast majority of candidates don't panic during interviews and can in fact demonstrate their skills when asked. I've done lots of interviewing and you aren't going to convince me or anyone else actually that breakdowns in an interview are completely irrelevant, especially when all you've been asked to do is demonstrate that you're actually qualified. It's also frankly a bit insulting to people who learned to control their emotions and work under pressure to expect that this behaviour be ignored in others who never learned to do it.
- prakhar897 4y ago
  > I had one person start crying they put so much pressure on themselves, I had to take a two week break from interviewing after that. Because you asked them question out of syllabus. Was the person informed that the interview wouldn't involve Leetcode? The person spent months prepping Leetcode just to get into BigTech and then you come out of woodwork with your "special" interviewing material. Imagine prepping for a calculus test for months and then the teacher comes out and takes a "simple" test on trignometry. Would you be able to do it? Not only that, all his/her friends got a normal calculus test which they passed with flying colors.
  - sitkack 4y ago
    This wasn't a Leetcode question. I understand where you are coming from, but it isn't that. This had to do with the pressure one puts on themselves for a job a BigTech company.

sitkack 4y ago

Interview technical folks at a FAANG and I don't asking leetcode questions. It isn't a SWE role but people should be SWE material. I do ask them to * read code * extend some working code with a new feature * parse some semi-structured text into a data structure Programming interviews suck for everyone, even the interviewer. I feel absolutely horrible when someone locks up, or fails really hard. The questions I ask aren't hard but half don't pass. What folks should do is practice coding in front of someone. Writing little exploratory snippets and understand the base library of the language they claim to know. I don't even ask people to vocalize while they are working on the problem. And I solve it at the same time they are and if they get stuck, I show them some of my code. I had one person start crying they put so much pressure on themselves, I had to take a two week break from interviewing after that.

weatherlite 4y ago
I was referring to SWE roles, as is this article I believe.
- sitkack 4y ago
  They aren't technically SWEs but they would be at any other company. I have been a SWE at three other FAANGs
  - weatherlite 4y ago
    > I have been a SWE at three other FAANGs Good for you. Now seriously I'm not sure what you're arguing for - you're saying FAANGS don't do Leetcode style questions? I get it that YOU don't do it to candidates in those roles, but the reality is for SWE roles this is how it is. People who aren't very good in Leetcode will not succeed. There's hundreds, maybe thousands of candidates for these roles and some of them can do the Leetcode thing - they are the ones who get hired. I'm not advocating for this method because I'm not particularly good at it or like solving these things on my spare time, nor do I think this method is particularly useful - but that's reality.
    - Jensson 4y ago
      I know Google has some tech support engineering roles where they ask such simple questions to candidates. They aren't software engineers and generally don' get to contribute to the main codebase, but they help customers fix problems with how they use Google API's etc so they need to know a bit about how to code.
lapcat 4y ago
> I had one person start crying they put so much pressure on themselves, I had to take a two week break from interviewing after that. This is a sign that the hiring process is broken. It's not testing skill level, it's testing anxiety level.
- native_samples 4y ago
  The second sentence may be true but the former isn't. People who break down and cry in interviews are rare but if they do it, they are best avoided and it was good that the interview revealed this. You cannot have that happening on the job but if they can't handle being asked to program something whilst up against a time limit or being watched, they're going to have breakdowns in other situations too.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    I've written at length about this before, so I'll just give a link instead of repeating the whole screed, but it's a misconception to equate interview anxiety with job anxiety. They're distinct and not necessarily correlated. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31377459 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31377459
    - sitkack 4y ago
      Thanks for taking the time to write that. I agree. Interviewing is a horrible crap shoot and would say even cruel by construction.
    - native_samples 4y ago
      It's obviously unpopular, but the brutal reality is that the vast majority of candidates don't panic during interviews and can in fact demonstrate their skills when asked. I've done lots of interviewing and you aren't going to convince me or anyone else actually that breakdowns in an interview are completely irrelevant, especially when all you've been asked to do is demonstrate that you're actually qualified. It's also frankly a bit insulting to people who learned to control their emotions and work under pressure to expect that this behaviour be ignored in others who never learned to do it.
prakhar897 4y ago
> I had one person start crying they put so much pressure on themselves, I had to take a two week break from interviewing after that. Because you asked them question out of syllabus. Was the person informed that the interview wouldn't involve Leetcode? The person spent months prepping Leetcode just to get into BigTech and then you come out of woodwork with your "special" interviewing material. Imagine prepping for a calculus test for months and then the teacher comes out and takes a "simple" test on trignometry. Would you be able to do it? Not only that, all his/her friends got a normal calculus test which they passed with flying colors.
- sitkack 4y ago
  This wasn't a Leetcode question. I understand where you are coming from, but it isn't that. This had to do with the pressure one puts on themselves for a job a BigTech company.