9 ms·
Ask HN: Would you hire someone who memorizes the System Design Interview book?
During the system design interview, my colleague gave a common question that was found in System Design interview. The candidate seems to be able to give a perfect answer (covering what the book is advising).
Objectively the candidate passed. But deep down I felt that passing the interview doesn't show me about what real life design problems that the candidate have faced before.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mon3y11 4y ago
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- yakorevivan 4y ago
- TotoHorner 4y agoDepends on the level. If it's an early career engineer (< 4 YOE) then sure fine. You can't expect someone with that kind of experience to have in-depth knowledge on system design. If it's senior+ then yeah you might expect more. Especially if it's around something the engineer has worked with before.
- jstx1 4y ago> If it's senior+ then yeah you might expect more. More than an exhaustive correct answer?
- nine_zeros 4y ago> If it's senior+ then yeah you might expect more. Especially if it's around something the engineer has worked with before. What is "more than" the correct answer?
- deeteecee 4y agothere is no correct answer but someone at the senior level would probably be able to explain the same kind of problem in more depth.
- akg_67 4y ago> my colleague gave *a common question that was found in System Design interview*. The candidate seems to be able to give a *perfect answer* Do you see the irony? Asking a “leetcode” question expecting an “non-leetcode” answer. Canned questions deserve canned answers. That’s what interviews have devolve into. You get what you measure. You want better experience and person, have a conversation not an interrogation.
- john_the_writer 4y agoCanned questions do not deserve an answer. If the person conducting the interview can't ask good technical questions, how could I hope to get good technical answers out of them. Interviews are both ways. It's not a pride thing, I want to work with people who can think. Asking leetcode questions proves they don't bother.
- jstx1 4y agoYes, definitely. What's the alternative - hire people who don't answer your question correctly? Only hire people who can give a good answer that's different from the book? Hire people who have read the book but are good at pretending that they haven't? None of those make sense. If someone giving you a correct answer is concerning, just change the questions that you use. But it would be ridiculous to penalize people for preparing.
- john_the_writer 4y agoSeems he/she read the manual and memorised it. Hell that is a huge green flag for me. If they can keep that manual in their head, then perhaps the GOF or other books too. Snap them up.
- alok-g 4y agoYou are getting what you asked for. If that's not what you need, ask for something else. There's nothing wrong in a candidate learning system design from a system design book.
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- faangiq 4y agoYes of course. Are you qualified to be interviewing?