31–40 of 189 posts
No graph problems? Seems like a possible hole, I got graph problems in interviews for Amazon.
Edit: Nevermind, I realized this was your phone screen prep.
In total I had a little less than one month to prepare for the interview. I can't help but to wonder if it was really worth it. Surely, his prep helped him get the job, but the entire prep stage he describes seems like a very high up-front cost. I've always felt that if I can't get through an interview with a little prep and my existing skills, I don't belong. You should know exactly why you want to work for Amazon.…
It's interesting to see how "whiteboard interview" prep mirrors standardized test prep. What is frustrating is that the prep month (?! a month is an eternity) could have been used to contribute to an personal project of choice, which would have said a lot more about the author's ability to program.
The very idea of trying to control quality of anything complex (work, life, relationships, economy, etc) via some extremely shallow and arbitrary test is the most idiotic idea ever yet it is practiced on such a wide scale. The world is run by idiots.
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Get the book, "Cracking The Coding Interview." It was the most valuable resource for me in preparing for technical interviews near the end of my time in undergrad.
Yes, I bought it last week. But, couldn't answer through the questions because I didn't know the concepts and DS's. Could you answer these 2 questions? 1. Where did you learn how to implement the Data Structures and Algorithms? 2. Also, I'm in a dilemma between using Python and C/C++. Which one would you suggest?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's interesting to see how "whiteboard interview" prep mirrors standardized test prep. What is frustrating is that the prep month (?! a month is an eternity) could have been used to contribute to an personal project of choice, which would have said a lot more about the author's ability to program.
Yeah the world is full of idiots in charge. If someone is "in charge" then they are most likely idiots. It's the statistical truth. Look at the world today? Who can claim thag over population and a melting planet is progress? The world is run by idiots. Did I stress that enough? :) The very idea of trying to control quality of anything complex (work, life, relationships, economy, etc) via some extremely shallow and a…
I don't think claiming something is a statistical truth without showing the statistics will fly on HN.
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> I've always felt that if I can't get through an interview with a little prep and my existing skills, I don't belong. I have this feeling too, but I am not sure if it is warranted. Let's do a thought experiment: grab an engineer at random, don't tell the interviewers that they are already a colleague, and subject to the same interview process as everyone else. Now, is this engineer going to pass the interview? Maybe…
We've talked about doing that. My fear was always that I'd fail and they'd reconsider my own employment :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's interesting to see how "whiteboard interview" prep mirrors standardized test prep. What is frustrating is that the prep month (?! a month is an eternity) could have been used to contribute to an personal project of choice, which would have said a lot more about the author's ability to program.
Yeah the world is full of idiots in charge. If someone is "in charge" then they are most likely idiots. It's the statistical truth. Look at the world today? Who can claim thag over population and a melting planet is progress? The world is run by idiots. Did I stress that enough? :) The very idea of trying to control quality of anything complex (work, life, relationships, economy, etc) via some extremely shallow and a…
If he signed an NDA, I probably wouldn't write a blog post about the interview process, that's a good way of getting fired for cause, since the late 1990s.
He has a footnote that the blog post was discussed. I'm sure nothing important was revealed. Frankly, there wasn't a whole lot to the article that I haven't read elsewhere anyway. No trade secrets there. Amazon wants people who, unlike me, don't find data structures and algorithms to be boring and sleep-inducing. That's about it.
Somehow I managed to pass to the next level. I told them no thanks.
In total I had a little less than one month to prepare for the interview. I can't help but to wonder if it was really worth it. Surely, his prep helped him get the job, but the entire prep stage he describes seems like a very high up-front cost. I've always felt that if I can't get through an interview with a little prep and my existing skills, I don't belong. You should know exactly why you want to work for Amazon.…
The other possibility is that it means the interviews aren't an accurate representation of the work.
I usually take a few days to brush up on algorithms and structures for the first one I do in a batch, and have some canned answers for the personal questions, but otherwise go in with what I know. Some of that's experience now, but I don't remember any point in my career where I'd have done something this extensive. I hope the poster doesn't feel they need a month's prep every time they want to go test the waters on the job market!
I do agree with the frequent recommendations for Cracking the Coding Interview. As a lead who interviews frequently, my biggest tip is to be honest about what you do and don't know--take what you do know right to the limit then talk about how you'd figure out the rest given normal professional time and resources.
I'm not usually grading someone on whether they can solve my specific problem so much as whether I think they're someone I can work with while they do it. That said, if it's on your resume you'd better be able to talk intelligently about it to whatever level makes sense for your experience. I definitely probe around that stuff to figure out if I can trust the rest.