Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tech Interview Handbook

yangshun.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 344 posts

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#31

Post by triceratops »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #26
triceratops wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The actual best method I think is a 3 month probationary period which is more or less an extended interview Most states in the US have at-will employment terms. Probationary periods are common in other countries. And yet no one seems to want to do what you're suggesting.

The problem is, most companies in the US want to hire you on as a Contractor and not a full time employee for those three months. I can't speak for everyone (but most folks, I assume), but I need medical and dental. I can't go three months for the chance of maybe getting it. I can't do it personally and i can't do that sort of thing to my family. there are other options in other countries (depending on the country).…

Sorry what I meant was US companies could treat the first 3 months of any full-time/W-2 employee as probationary because they can fire anyone for any reason other than protected characteristics. It doesn't even need to be an official company policy documented anywhere.`

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#32

Post by numakerg »

DavidWoof wrote: post #21
ale22 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much were you paying for these positions?

Slightly above market rate for the area, all in the low-to-mid six figures.

Was this a position where they were expected to write code? I'm surprised that developers making six figures couldn't solve a problem that an interviewer considered trivial.

Any chance of a sample or maybe an alternate version of the problem?

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#33

Post by seanmcdirmid »

DavidWoof wrote: post #11

I realize everybody's going to jump in and rant about algorithms in interviews, but I wish you'd all add something constructive as well. I just had to conduct a round of interviews in a non-SF large US city, and it was a hellish crapshoot. Resumes are meaningless, and often re-written by recruiters to match the job anyway. Everyone has the same canned answers to the stupid behavioral questions. And as for the code, w…

Resumes and prior experience should be taken more seriously, backed by more rigorous verification of said things and real reference checking. In a way, that is what already happens for the more technical positions (someone already knows you can do the job, the interview is just a formality) and sucks for those who don’t have well known enough reputations.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#34

Post by _hardwaregeek »

yumraj wrote: post #7

Given the current state of tech interviews, they have more or less become like standardized tests, such as SAT, ACT, GMAT, GRE... with guides, cheat sheets and perhaps neighborhood coaching institutes on the horizon with instructors who have cleared tech interviews in FAANGs. Are we going to see tech recruitment become more and more like college admissions where a top score in the interview is just one of the criteri…

Y'know, as someone who went to a very competitive public school, there were a particular brand of driven, studious kids who knew exactly how to paint along the lines, play the game, and get into the college of their choice. They understood the precise combo of grades, extracurriculars and essays to get into a "good" school.

I definitely see some of those kids doing the same tactics to get into a "good" company. The steps are slightly different but the philosophy is the same: grind Leetcode, participate in tech clubs and take bullshit jobs juuust long enough to get an internship, get said internship and parlay it into a return offer. Put your head down, play the game and reap the rewards.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#35

Post by numakerg »

sthatipamala wrote: post #12
yumraj wrote: post #7

Given the current state of tech interviews, they have more or less become like standardized tests, such as SAT, ACT, GMAT, GRE... with guides, cheat sheets and perhaps neighborhood coaching institutes on the horizon with instructors who have cleared tech interviews in FAANGs. Are we going to see tech recruitment become more and more like college admissions where a top score in the interview is just one of the criteri…

There's a YC company that's literally making a standardized test for programmers: https://cspa.io/

They trademarked the words "Core Exam"? That seems like a rather generic term.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#36

Post by lacker »

new299 wrote: post #28
DavidWoof wrote: post #11

I realize everybody's going to jump in and rant about algorithms in interviews, but I wish you'd all add something constructive as well. I just had to conduct a round of interviews in a non-SF large US city, and it was a hellish crapshoot. Resumes are meaningless, and often re-written by recruiters to match the job anyway. Everyone has the same canned answers to the stupid behavioral questions. And as for the code, w…

Personally I can't see an issue with very simple FizzBuzz style programming interview questions. I used to ask a simple "count duplicate substrings" question [1]. Maybe some people consider this too hard? I never used to require exact syntax, and would have been happy with pseudo-code. Using libraries is fine etc.. I also found very few people could solve this (similar non-SF large city location). Occasionally, peopl…

Of course some people will consider that question to be too hard. But you may not want to hire those people. The point of an interview process is for you to pick the people you want to hire, not to ask questions that everyone agrees aren’t too hard.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#37

Post by _hardwaregeek »

triceratops wrote: post #18
codingslave wrote: post #4

Two outcomes for the technical industry: 1.) Everyone is studying these problems all of the time and they finally disappear. 2.) Other outcome is a dystopian field fueled by a race to the bottom where everyone is practicing algorithms problems all of the time. If you read the blind forums, some people are completing 500-1000 leetcode problems before heading into interviews. I'm putting my money on number 2, which is…

> Can only imagine what this is doing to code quality... Why would studying algorithms and data structures affect code quality? They would similarly be able to learn to write quality code once they're inside the company, no?

Because you get the college applications problem, where you stop getting the people who have a real passion for programming and coincidentally have problem solving and algorithms skills, and start getting people who are really good at problem solving and algorithms and may or may not have a passion for programming.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#39

Post by triceratops »

_hardwaregeek wrote: post #37
triceratops wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can only imagine what this is doing to code quality... Why would studying algorithms and data structures affect code quality? They would similarly be able to learn to write quality code once they're inside the company, no?

Because you get the college applications problem, where you stop getting the people who have a real passion for programming and coincidentally have problem solving and algorithms skills, and start getting people who are really good at problem solving and algorithms and may or may not have a passion for programming.

> start getting people who are really good at problem solving and algorithms and may or may not have a passion for programming.

Why is "passion" so important? And what even is passion? For professionals in every other field, competence, ability to deliver results, and getting along with people, are what matter. Many pros are passionate, in the sense of loving their work, but passion isn't a prerequisite for being a pro.

Re: Tech Interview Handbook

#40

Post by DavidWoof »

triceratops wrote: post #31
UnpossibleJim wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is, most companies in the US want to hire you on as a Contractor and not a full time employee for those three months. I can't speak for everyone (but most folks, I assume), but I need medical and dental. I can't go three months for the chance of maybe getting it. I can't do it personally and i can't do that sort of thing to my family. there are other options in other countries (depending on the country).…

Sorry what I meant was US companies could treat the first 3 months of any full-time/W-2 employee as probationary because they can fire anyone for any reason other than protected characteristics. It doesn't even need to be an official company policy documented anywhere.`

They could in theory, but nobody wants to. I used to see probationary periods, but I haven't seen a company use that for salaried staff for a long time. HR and Legal have put an end to that kind of thing.

So Jim is right, in practice the only way HR is going to let you have a probationary period is to use contractors, and that limits your hiring pool significantly.

Post reply on HN