Ask HN: I'm not a good programmer, but I keep acing interviews

this happens alot*. i think some reasons include

company/group is experiencing turnover so high its becoming existential. tell the candidate whatever is necessary to get them in the door and hope inertia keeps them around for a bit.

upper management and recruiting is keeping hold of the narrative that they want 'only the best'. they don't have enough experience to know that fit is more squishy thing and maybe being a dba isn't really your thing

as a corollary to the above, maybe they just don't know any better. they've never seen an actual software developer, and think the pinnacle of the game is managing a migration across minor revisions of os releases. how many jobs listing 'kernel experience' actually involve writing kernel code. or distributed systems or compilers, or networking, or graphics or ml, or anything really. all of those terms are used interchangeably to denote the development of a thing and the use of a thing. 'implement' used to mean something else entirely.

the lack of any team culture or planning. maybe management really did want to hire someone with intention of righting the ship. but in the absence of any kind of structure, the wheel isn't really hooked up to anything. you can talk all you want about what needs to be done, and people might enjoy the discussion, but no one is going to change what they are doing one iota to achieve a common goal. often the lack of any testing infrastructure makes any change or evolution a non-starter.

the company hires in a pool and holds its candidates to high standards. in reality they need many more support people than architects and senior developers. so many of those people get assigned to work that they graduated out of doing several years (or decades) ago.

original team is trickling away. they were great. exceptional. the best in the world. of course you want to keep hiring to the same high standards. except the nature of the work has changed, you don't really want to rewrite everything, you just want to keep it going. and maybe the end result of that initial effort is considerably less exceptional than you've been telling yourself, your customers and your investors.

come to think of it...it really seems pretty likely that your new job is going to be a bit of a disappointment.

Think about building anything else, besides software. The act of building is very different than the act of fixing, and even the act of adding on. Practically all software interviews -- technically speaking -- about building new stuff. Fixing bugs, adding features, and dealing with technical debt have practically nothing to do with algorithms and other technical interview topics.

Which is to say that if you're not into that, it's on you to find out early because most companies think all they have to do is hire the smartest engineers and everything else will work itself out. Typically you don't need to ask anything at all: unless it's a startup or some crazy project by an older company, you're fixing bugs and adding features. But probably a good idea to ask anyway.

Or there are ways to make the "fix bugs and add features" gig work. Ask about their process: do they have docs, do they have a roadmap built with engineering input, how much time do they devote to addressing technical debt, and so on.

It sounds like you're actually a good programmer, but coding is really a very small part of the gig. Now that you know how to do it, you'd probably benefit from learning the process around it and being proactive about what you're getting into.

same

While I agree with your point, I'd like to add on that very high retention is also bad. It's where complacence thrives, and these places often weed out more ambitious people like OP via politics.

Interviews are there for both parties to get information about the other. Start asking questions to figure out if you even want the job. Note that asking questions may turn off some employers, but if you're getting lots of offers you're in a good place to turn off some people.

Strongly considering taking the way too much money, and get your finances in order. Having a big financial cushion and excellent interview skills will give you a lot of room to make choices that make you happy.