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Hmm, what would be a typical experienced, successful programmer's response to this kind of a question if it were asked in, you know, a real-life setting? "Look

Hmm, what would be a typical experienced, successful programmer's response to this kind of a question if it were asked in, you know, a real-life setting? "Look at bit-shift operators, and how they work on unsigned integers. Then think & and ^ and how they relate to addition (adders, after all, have to be implemented in terms of elementary operations like those). It's all pretty straightforward from there. Go the whiteboard and walk you through it? Huh? Look, it's an interesting problem, but I've got some regression tests to get straightened out by the end of the day that are like, totally messed up. They were written by some guy we hired on the basis of his ability to solve puzzle problems, but just ended up totally slacking and never tying the ends off of anything he did." Really now, why should one's response in an interview be any different?

crusso 14y ago
As a hiring manager for the last 15+ years, I would LOVE that kind of response. That kind of response would save me a tremendous amount of time and enormous headaches dealing with a bad hire. I would thank you for your honesty, ask you a couple of perfunctory questions so it didn't seem too awkward and then let you go on your way in life to be someone else's problem. Working on real projects that people actually want to pay for means working somewhat on the edge. Things go wrong. There are crunch time when solutions have to be delivered. The last thing I want at those times is to have to depend upon some mommie's special little snowflake who was too self-important to gamely work through some puzzle exercises during an interview for a job he claimed he wanted. That little snowflake will melt every time and leave me and the rest of his team to fend for itself. No thanks.
- toomuchcoffee 14y ago
  mommie's special little snowflake Aww.

crusso 14y ago

As a hiring manager for the last 15+ years, I would LOVE that kind of response. That kind of response would save me a tremendous amount of time and enormous headaches dealing with a bad hire. I would thank you for your honesty, ask you a couple of perfunctory questions so it didn't seem too awkward and then let you go on your way in life to be someone else's problem. Working on real projects that people actually want to pay for means working somewhat on the edge. Things go wrong. There are crunch time when solutions have to be delivered. The last thing I want at those times is to have to depend upon some mommie's special little snowflake who was too self-important to gamely work through some puzzle exercises during an interview for a job he claimed he wanted. That little snowflake will melt every time and leave me and the rest of his team to fend for itself. No thanks.

toomuchcoffee 14y ago
mommie's special little snowflake Aww.