Subj : Are you a programmer? These interview tips may help
To   : Digital Man
From : Nightfox
Date : Fri Nov 01 2019 10:41:18

  Re: Are you a programmer? These interview tips may help
  By: Digital Man to MRO on Thu Oct 31 2019 10:21 pm

 DM> The CS/algo-focused questions are relatively new to me - I first
 DM> encountered them during a job search 2.5 years ago, but mainly at the
 DM> bigger firms (FAANG). Now, it seems that method of interviewing has
 DM> trickled down to everyone else, probably because they learned it from
 DM> their experience interviewing at or working for the big names (e.g.
 DM> Google) and now it's just the norm. 

I've had some algo type of questions in my interviews recently, and 10+ years ago or so.  And sometimes they'll ask you to write a bit of code at the interview.  Similar to what you said about the puzzle/riddle quesitons, sometimes I feel like it's difficult to answer such questions & exercises on the spot because you're stressed and not at your best game.  Also, I've found people often take an iterative approach to writing software, where you write some code and get it working, and improve it later (and there are companies that do code reviews during code check-ins too) - so to expect you to write good code on the spot during an interview seems a little unfair in that regard.

It's a little better when they send you a coding exercise to work on in your own time and send it back to them.

 DM> Oh, I've had weird experiences going all the way back to the late 80's. I
 DM> remember one interviewer just stopped talking and stared at me for a solid
 DM> minute. I just stared right back. I guess I passed that test because he
 DM> made me a job offer (which I declined).

That sounds pretty weird.  I haven't had anyone do that to me (yet).

Nightfox

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