5 ms·

As someone who has recruited hundreds of candidates at this point I would urge caution with lists like this. By all means read the list, but rather than trying

As someone who has recruited hundreds of candidates at this point I would urge caution with lists like this. By all means read the list, but rather than trying to grind through as many of the questions as possible, try to use it as inspiration and think of what you're actually curious about and which might tip you over one way or the other if you're on the fence. It's far better to have a good conversation about 1 thing which might affect your decision than a superficial sprint through a bunch of topics you don't actually care that much about. Secondly, consider that if you do well you are likely to have multiple rounds of interviews. Think about which questions are likely to be most enlightening when you ask each interviewer. Don't shy away from asking 2 people the same question if you think you'll get different perspectives. If you ask a peer engineer the diversity questions you may well get quite a different answer from asking the HR/recruiting person for instance (eg one might give you a cultural insight vs the other might just give you the policy/factual answer). I once interviewed a candidate[1] who had printed off a whole list like this and insisted on grinding through the whole thing. It was weirdly offputting, but he was such a monster programmer that he was already a clear hire. It gave an insight into the thoroughness of his nature though and showed that he was absolutely perfect for the (critical) role we were hiring him for where mistakes were extremely costly. [1] Hi Fluffy! If you see this I hope you're doing well.

paskozdilar 4y ago
> I once interviewed a candidate[1] who had printed off a whole list like this and insisted on grinding through the whole thing. It was weirdly offputting, but he was such a monster programmer that he was already a clear hire. It gave an insight into the thoroughness of his nature though and showed that he was absolutely perfect for the (critical) role we were hiring him for where mistakes were extremely costly. Would you share some more information on what kind of role it was? And what kind of qualities would you look for when hiring someone for that kind of position? I aspire to work in such role (where pedantry is appreciated, instead of tolerated) one day, and I'd be grateful for any such information or hints.
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  I mean I'm reading that and I just wonder if the grandparent only hired one person for that role; if it's that critical, you should never rely on one person. You need a team and thorough QA. It does remind me of this article I once read about how things happened at NASA, with every line of code extensively documented and discussed, and teams competing with each other to find bugs.
- badpun 4y ago
  Linux kernel programming is probably like this. There are no automatic tests, so the more pedantic you are, the less bugs you'll introduce.
  - silvestrov 4y ago
    accounting is another job where mistakes can be very costly monetary, customer relationship or law. Until you have worked with (internationonal) accounting, you don't realize how complex it can be.
  - arwhatever 4y ago
    The fewer bugs you’ll introduce. I don’t know squat about kernel programming, though. :-)
    - danielheath 4y ago
      You are also likely introducing bugs which are lesser :p
    - dahart 4y ago
      Time to unlearn some things about English that aren’t true. Less is fine to use. Also, myriad can be a noun, literally has always been used figuratively, responding to ‘how are you?’ with ‘I’m good’ is perfectly fine. I’ve tried correcting people too, but the older I get, the more I find out that it’s me who’s wrong and policing language is almost never correct. The idea to use “fewer” for countable things was someone’s personal preference. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/fewer-vs-less https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/fewer-vs-less “This rule is simple enough and looks easy enough to follow, but it's not accurate for all usage. The fact is that less is also sometimes used to refer to number among things that are counted. “This isn't an example of how modern English is going to the dogs. Less has been used this way for well over a thousand years—nearly as long as there's been a written English language.” See also the list of common counter examples.
wsostt 4y ago
This is the best interpretation of this list. It’s a great guide to understand what topics you care about. Maybe there are a couple questions in here that would raise red flags for you. You should pursue those as conversation points.
andrew_ 4y ago
These days the companies are interviewed just as much as, if not more than, the candidates. It's the new reality, or at least current reality. Pushing back against it will push that position to the bottom of the pile for (anecdotally) many candidates.
- ziddoap 4y ago
  I've certainly gotten into the habit of "interviewing the interviewer", in a reasonable sense. After all I'm looking to see if the job suits me just as much as the employer wants to make sure I suit the job. But I've never considered asking a full interview worth of questions over multiple sessions. "As much as, if not more than" seems really exaggerated. That implies that candidates are asking 30-60 minutes of questions straight, then doing it again a week or two later. Maybe even asking the employer to do a take-home? I can't imagine the look on an interviewers face if I asked them to do a take-home.
alkonaut 4y ago
Hi don't think anyone would want or need to plow through 100-200 questions but I'd certainly not take a job without getting good, clear answers to perhaps 30 of these.
xeromal 4y ago
The repo does say This is not a checklist, this is not a shopping list. If you send this entire list to an employer, they probably won't be calling you back. This list is intended to serve as a reference point for things to be aware of during your interview process. Not all of these questions will be relevant to every person or position, you should choose the ones that are relevant to you and what you are interviewing for. It's OK for there to be questions on this list that you personally do not care about. They seem well aware of what you're talking about.
- jolen33 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
SetTheorist 4y ago
Absolutely. I've done a lot of interviews for different companies, and it is clear when someone is asking a pre-canned list of questions vs. someone who has real questions and genuine interest. I wouldn't give a no-hire recommendation just because someone did that, but it is definitely off-putting. Genuine questions asked out of interest can lead to an interesting discussion which could give a boost to a candidate. (Obviously, actual skills are the most important thing, but when choosing between a couple of candidates, both seeming fits for a role, it could tip the scales.)
chiefalchemist 4y ago
For hiring orgs, I have a phrase that I repeat quite often on LinkedIn: "How you hire is whom you hire." Along the same lines, for the candidates, I might now have to add: "The question you ask* are as important as the answers you give." That said, unfortunately, quite often the candidates' side of the process is a second class citizen. If I had $20 for everytime the candidate was tossed token "We have 5 minutes...got any questions..."* I'd have Bezos' FY money. And now we're back to where we started: How you hire is whom you hire. *If they give you sufficient time for questions.
- macintux 4y ago
  I conducted an interview recently where I started by giving the candidate time for questions, and he occupied nearly all of the allotted time that way. I wasn't certain whether he was trying to avoid being asked questions, but the questions he asked were insightful and useful to help evaluate him.
  - chiefalchemist 4y ago
    Yeah, that's a problem :) The solution is simple. Make the meeting more conversational, at least initially. It's a form of dating, if you will. No one wants to be interrogated. No one wants to do all the talking or all the listening. Yet most inteviews are some derivation of what would be a bad date by most reasonable accounts. More eHarmony. Less Tinder. p.s. I'd even recommend that prior to the first meeting, the company send an email / docs titled FAQs that covers the obvious stuff. Is it a new position or a back fill? How long is it open? Next steps in the process? Not only does this inform the candidate it's great context, it shows a level of thoroughness and processionalism, etc.
- time_to_smile 4y ago
  > quite often the candidates' side of the process is a second class citizen One thing I find increasingly strange is that it is extremely taboo for the candidate to ever ask any technical questions of their interviewers of the same variety the candidate is asked. As I've grown more senior in my experience it has become increasingly important to me that my peers and coworkers are as technically competent as they expect me to be. An example: I was interviewing at a company that has the reputation being fairly elite. The role wasn't my ideal role, but given the reputation of the company I would happily take a less desirable role if the team was truly world class and passionate about engineering. While some of the interviewers were clearly excellent, there was one point in the process where I was being grilled on Python internals. It became increasingly clear that the interviewer's depth of knowledge was very likely limited to the set of questions they were asking me. The topic of threading in Python came up, and so I gave usual mentions of the GIL and IO bound vs CPU bound tasks, the trade off of multiple processing versus threads etc. However I personally find the design decisions behind the GIL really interesting since it brings up a nice discussion around memory management in Python. I brought some of this up causally at the end just to chat with the interviewer a bit, but it was clear that this well outside of their understanding of the interviewer. I just find it odd that it's fine for companies to aggressively grill you on a range of topics and walk through complex algorithms cases, but you aren't really supposed to try to get a feel for how technically skilled your potential new colleagues are. But, to your point, the companies that I've enjoyed the most are ones where a technical discussion (rather than grilling) naturally breaks out during the interview.
cecilpl2 4y ago
The last interview loop I went through, I met with 10 different people along the way. I asked every single one of them "What are the qualities that make for a successful engineer at XYZ"? I got 10 different answers but with several common themes and threads running through them. Each individual is biased by their own experiences and perspective, but the commonalities are what speak to the culture. No one person's answer was sufficient to give me a clear picture of the truth.
ericmcer 4y ago
Leverage, a self taught programmer with no work experience and a senior at a FAANG should approach this list completely differently.
lupire 4y ago
Another way to phrase this is that yoo met someone who was so much more talented than you expected and understood (in one dimension), that you almost rejected them to cover up your insecure ego, instead of being open to learning from someone who behaved differently. Congratulations on overcoming and making the right decision.
cratermoon 4y ago
It's also possible to get answers to many of these questions just by talking to your interviewer, no need to go asking questions in interrogation style, or as a candidate you might get answers to them as part of the interview process. Many of the questions about the company can (and probably should) be something you research before interviewing, or even applying.

paskozdilar 4y ago

> I once interviewed a candidate[1] who had printed off a whole list like this and insisted on grinding through the whole thing. It was weirdly offputting, but he was such a monster programmer that he was already a clear hire. It gave an insight into the thoroughness of his nature though and showed that he was absolutely perfect for the (critical) role we were hiring him for where mistakes were extremely costly. Would you share some more information on what kind of role it was? And what kind of qualities would you look for when hiring someone for that kind of position? I aspire to work in such role (where pedantry is appreciated, instead of tolerated) one day, and I'd be grateful for any such information or hints.

Cthulhu_ 4y ago
I mean I'm reading that and I just wonder if the grandparent only hired one person for that role; if it's that critical, you should never rely on one person. You need a team and thorough QA. It does remind me of this article I once read about how things happened at NASA, with every line of code extensively documented and discussed, and teams competing with each other to find bugs.
badpun 4y ago
Linux kernel programming is probably like this. There are no automatic tests, so the more pedantic you are, the less bugs you'll introduce.
- silvestrov 4y ago
  accounting is another job where mistakes can be very costly monetary, customer relationship or law. Until you have worked with (internationonal) accounting, you don't realize how complex it can be.
- arwhatever 4y ago
  The fewer bugs you’ll introduce. I don’t know squat about kernel programming, though. :-)
  - danielheath 4y ago
    You are also likely introducing bugs which are lesser :p
  - dahart 4y ago
    Time to unlearn some things about English that aren’t true. Less is fine to use. Also, myriad can be a noun, literally has always been used figuratively, responding to ‘how are you?’ with ‘I’m good’ is perfectly fine. I’ve tried correcting people too, but the older I get, the more I find out that it’s me who’s wrong and policing language is almost never correct. The idea to use “fewer” for countable things was someone’s personal preference. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/fewer-vs-less https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/fewer-vs-less “This rule is simple enough and looks easy enough to follow, but it's not accurate for all usage. The fact is that less is also sometimes used to refer to number among things that are counted. “This isn't an example of how modern English is going to the dogs. Less has been used this way for well over a thousand years—nearly as long as there's been a written English language.” See also the list of common counter examples.

wsostt 4y ago

This is the best interpretation of this list. It’s a great guide to understand what topics you care about. Maybe there are a couple questions in here that would raise red flags for you. You should pursue those as conversation points.

andrew_ 4y ago

These days the companies are interviewed just as much as, if not more than, the candidates. It's the new reality, or at least current reality. Pushing back against it will push that position to the bottom of the pile for (anecdotally) many candidates.

ziddoap 4y ago
I've certainly gotten into the habit of "interviewing the interviewer", in a reasonable sense. After all I'm looking to see if the job suits me just as much as the employer wants to make sure I suit the job. But I've never considered asking a full interview worth of questions over multiple sessions. "As much as, if not more than" seems really exaggerated. That implies that candidates are asking 30-60 minutes of questions straight, then doing it again a week or two later. Maybe even asking the employer to do a take-home? I can't imagine the look on an interviewers face if I asked them to do a take-home.

alkonaut 4y ago

Hi don't think anyone would want or need to plow through 100-200 questions but I'd certainly not take a job without getting good, clear answers to perhaps 30 of these.

xeromal 4y ago

The repo does say This is not a checklist, this is not a shopping list. If you send this entire list to an employer, they probably won't be calling you back. This list is intended to serve as a reference point for things to be aware of during your interview process. Not all of these questions will be relevant to every person or position, you should choose the ones that are relevant to you and what you are interviewing for. It's OK for there to be questions on this list that you personally do not care about. They seem well aware of what you're talking about.

jolen33 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

SetTheorist 4y ago

Absolutely. I've done a lot of interviews for different companies, and it is clear when someone is asking a pre-canned list of questions vs. someone who has real questions and genuine interest. I wouldn't give a no-hire recommendation just because someone did that, but it is definitely off-putting. Genuine questions asked out of interest can lead to an interesting discussion which could give a boost to a candidate. (Obviously, actual skills are the most important thing, but when choosing between a couple of candidates, both seeming fits for a role, it could tip the scales.)

chiefalchemist 4y ago

For hiring orgs, I have a phrase that I repeat quite often on LinkedIn: "How you hire is whom you hire." Along the same lines, for the candidates, I might now have to add: "The question you ask* are as important as the answers you give." That said, unfortunately, quite often the candidates' side of the process is a second class citizen. If I had $20 for everytime the candidate was tossed token "We have 5 minutes...got any questions..."* I'd have Bezos' FY money. And now we're back to where we started: How you hire is whom you hire. *If they give you sufficient time for questions.

macintux 4y ago
I conducted an interview recently where I started by giving the candidate time for questions, and he occupied nearly all of the allotted time that way. I wasn't certain whether he was trying to avoid being asked questions, but the questions he asked were insightful and useful to help evaluate him.
- chiefalchemist 4y ago
  Yeah, that's a problem :) The solution is simple. Make the meeting more conversational, at least initially. It's a form of dating, if you will. No one wants to be interrogated. No one wants to do all the talking or all the listening. Yet most inteviews are some derivation of what would be a bad date by most reasonable accounts. More eHarmony. Less Tinder. p.s. I'd even recommend that prior to the first meeting, the company send an email / docs titled FAQs that covers the obvious stuff. Is it a new position or a back fill? How long is it open? Next steps in the process? Not only does this inform the candidate it's great context, it shows a level of thoroughness and processionalism, etc.
time_to_smile 4y ago
> quite often the candidates' side of the process is a second class citizen One thing I find increasingly strange is that it is extremely taboo for the candidate to ever ask any technical questions of their interviewers of the same variety the candidate is asked. As I've grown more senior in my experience it has become increasingly important to me that my peers and coworkers are as technically competent as they expect me to be. An example: I was interviewing at a company that has the reputation being fairly elite. The role wasn't my ideal role, but given the reputation of the company I would happily take a less desirable role if the team was truly world class and passionate about engineering. While some of the interviewers were clearly excellent, there was one point in the process where I was being grilled on Python internals. It became increasingly clear that the interviewer's depth of knowledge was very likely limited to the set of questions they were asking me. The topic of threading in Python came up, and so I gave usual mentions of the GIL and IO bound vs CPU bound tasks, the trade off of multiple processing versus threads etc. However I personally find the design decisions behind the GIL really interesting since it brings up a nice discussion around memory management in Python. I brought some of this up causally at the end just to chat with the interviewer a bit, but it was clear that this well outside of their understanding of the interviewer. I just find it odd that it's fine for companies to aggressively grill you on a range of topics and walk through complex algorithms cases, but you aren't really supposed to try to get a feel for how technically skilled your potential new colleagues are. But, to your point, the companies that I've enjoyed the most are ones where a technical discussion (rather than grilling) naturally breaks out during the interview.

cecilpl2 4y ago

The last interview loop I went through, I met with 10 different people along the way. I asked every single one of them "What are the qualities that make for a successful engineer at XYZ"? I got 10 different answers but with several common themes and threads running through them. Each individual is biased by their own experiences and perspective, but the commonalities are what speak to the culture. No one person's answer was sufficient to give me a clear picture of the truth.

ericmcer 4y ago

Leverage, a self taught programmer with no work experience and a senior at a FAANG should approach this list completely differently.

lupire 4y ago

Another way to phrase this is that yoo met someone who was so much more talented than you expected and understood (in one dimension), that you almost rejected them to cover up your insecure ego, instead of being open to learning from someone who behaved differently. Congratulations on overcoming and making the right decision.

cratermoon 4y ago

It's also possible to get answers to many of these questions just by talking to your interviewer, no need to go asking questions in interrogation style, or as a candidate you might get answers to them as part of the interview process. Many of the questions about the company can (and probably should) be something you research before interviewing, or even applying.