3 ms·

Between 2010 and 2019 I interviewed dozens of Software Engineer candidates at Google. Almost always I asked the same interview question. Moreover, this question

by behdad 3y ago

Between 2010 and 2019 I interviewed dozens of Software Engineer candidates at Google. Almost always I asked the same interview question. Moreover, this question happened to be on the banned list at Google, because it was publicly available on Glassdoor and other interview websites, but I continued to use it because I got good signal from the candidates.

foobarian 3y ago
I stuck to the same question for nearly a decade too, even if it was barely more difficult than fizzbuzz. The ability to compare against the past candidates was very useful, which would not be possible when changing questions too often. The sad reality was that it was waaaay too effective as a fizzbuzz eliminator (> 80%) which I don't know what it tells me about the candidates in general or just about our recruiting :-)
- yamtaddle 3y ago
  > The sad reality was that it was waaaay too effective as a fizzbuzz eliminator (> 80%) which I don't know what it tells me about the candidates in general or just about our recruiting :-) I suspect there are a lot more people who frequently choke on easy coding questions, under the very specific conditions of interview-stress (which is very different from, "the client is unhappy and is also onsite and you'll be in a meeting with them later" stress, and from "production broke" stress, so no, I don't think it's a good proxy for general "grace under fire", as it were, either) than there are actual full-on bullshitters who manage to land software jobs while being truly incapable of doing even the basics of the job. For one thing, I think such top-tier, extremely-convincing bullshitters would have an easier and less-stressful time applying that skill directly to some other role, since there are some well-paid roles where that kind of thing is exactly what companies want, so it doesn't pass the smell test for me that so very many would be trying to land software jobs—not just ones who exaggerate skill or try to get into the industry while woefully unprepared, but who also are able to fool interviewers at a reasonably-high rate in conversational interviews, yet fail simple coding tests. That is, I suspect a large majority of "ha! I caught a faker!" anecdotes or anec-data are actually a false-negative on the test from people choking under interview conditions, and that most real fakers would also have been caught in any half-competent conversational interview anyway. The remainder should be probably be hired regardless, then re-homed to sales when you realize what's going on, since they're evidently top-percentile bullshitters and social chameleons. Joking, of course... kinda. Maybe.
  - medvezhenok 3y ago
    There's certainly part of that, but there's also likely selection/sample bias. The better the programmer, the less time they probably spend in interviews. And the "reward" on passing a programming interview if you're marginal is quite high, depending on your alternative choices of employment. (Top tier Ivy League university acceptance rate is 3-10%, so if you're looking for someone of at least that caliber among the general population (or even among developers), an 80% rejection rate might not be crazy. FAANG (or its ilk) are the "Ivy League" of Software Development jobs)
    - pcdevils 3y ago
      The tens of thousands being laid off from that ivy league and ones who jumped the, 6 step, multi-tiered interview hurdles to get a job offer, later rescinded, might disagree with that value proposition.
  - ekidd 3y ago
    What percentage of candidates would you believe freeze up so badly that they can't program at all? Over the years, I have seen significant numbers of applicants who couldn't write FizzBuzz, and even one who couldn't sum up the numbers in an array (ignoring overflow). Some of these people had reasonable resumes, and many of them could talk about software development in the abstract. This was usually a sign of poor phone screening, but it always blew my mind.
    - famahar 3y ago
      Interviews make me realize I don't know how to code on the spot while 4 people (responsible for judging me and determining my worth) watch me. I second guess everything and freeze up. My mental capacity to solve a problem is being taken up by a fight/flight response (wanting to push through the question or quit). The environment I'm in is foreign, outside of my typical coding setup. My brain has no time to adjust. You could look at my github and see someone who's an excellent coder, but put me in an interview scenario like the one OP wrote and it's like 10 years of education just disappear.

by behdad 3y ago

foobarian 3y ago

I stuck to the same question for nearly a decade too, even if it was barely more difficult than fizzbuzz. The ability to compare against the past candidates was very useful, which would not be possible when changing questions too often. The sad reality was that it was waaaay too effective as a fizzbuzz eliminator (> 80%) which I don't know what it tells me about the candidates in general or just about our recruiting :-)

yamtaddle 3y ago
> The sad reality was that it was waaaay too effective as a fizzbuzz eliminator (> 80%) which I don't know what it tells me about the candidates in general or just about our recruiting :-) I suspect there are a lot more people who frequently choke on easy coding questions, under the very specific conditions of interview-stress (which is very different from, "the client is unhappy and is also onsite and you'll be in a meeting with them later" stress, and from "production broke" stress, so no, I don't think it's a good proxy for general "grace under fire", as it were, either) than there are actual full-on bullshitters who manage to land software jobs while being truly incapable of doing even the basics of the job. For one thing, I think such top-tier, extremely-convincing bullshitters would have an easier and less-stressful time applying that skill directly to some other role, since there are some well-paid roles where that kind of thing is exactly what companies want, so it doesn't pass the smell test for me that so very many would be trying to land software jobs—not just ones who exaggerate skill or try to get into the industry while woefully unprepared, but who also are able to fool interviewers at a reasonably-high rate in conversational interviews, yet fail simple coding tests. That is, I suspect a large majority of "ha! I caught a faker!" anecdotes or anec-data are actually a false-negative on the test from people choking under interview conditions, and that most real fakers would also have been caught in any half-competent conversational interview anyway. The remainder should be probably be hired regardless, then re-homed to sales when you realize what's going on, since they're evidently top-percentile bullshitters and social chameleons. Joking, of course... kinda. Maybe.
- medvezhenok 3y ago
  There's certainly part of that, but there's also likely selection/sample bias. The better the programmer, the less time they probably spend in interviews. And the "reward" on passing a programming interview if you're marginal is quite high, depending on your alternative choices of employment. (Top tier Ivy League university acceptance rate is 3-10%, so if you're looking for someone of at least that caliber among the general population (or even among developers), an 80% rejection rate might not be crazy. FAANG (or its ilk) are the "Ivy League" of Software Development jobs)
  - pcdevils 3y ago
    The tens of thousands being laid off from that ivy league and ones who jumped the, 6 step, multi-tiered interview hurdles to get a job offer, later rescinded, might disagree with that value proposition.
- ekidd 3y ago
  What percentage of candidates would you believe freeze up so badly that they can't program at all? Over the years, I have seen significant numbers of applicants who couldn't write FizzBuzz, and even one who couldn't sum up the numbers in an array (ignoring overflow). Some of these people had reasonable resumes, and many of them could talk about software development in the abstract. This was usually a sign of poor phone screening, but it always blew my mind.
  - famahar 3y ago
    Interviews make me realize I don't know how to code on the spot while 4 people (responsible for judging me and determining my worth) watch me. I second guess everything and freeze up. My mental capacity to solve a problem is being taken up by a fight/flight response (wanting to push through the question or quit). The environment I'm in is foreign, outside of my typical coding setup. My brain has no time to adjust. You could look at my github and see someone who's an excellent coder, but put me in an interview scenario like the one OP wrote and it's like 10 years of education just disappear.