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My Job Interview at Google (2008)

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Re: My Job Interview at Google (2008)

#151

Post by [deleted] »

funny948 wrote: post #19
Rockslide wrote: post #8

Reading that stuff always makes me feel incredibly stupid (or rather clueless). I wouldn't be able to answer most of those questions off the top of my head. Including this weird clock hand question (which is probably some trivial math that might or might not have been taught to me more than a decade ago and which I never ever actually applied since). Then I probably have to remind myself that I'm (halfway successfull…

I was good before but i did excersize for google interview for 2-3 month. I actually overdid the learning as i assumed that the coding questions can't be that easy. But at the end of the day, i'm still not working for google because yes the coding questions are not that hard but you have to convince 5 different people that you are a good fit. Suddenly you excersize for learning how to know what the interviewer wants…

[deleted]

Re: My Job Interview at Google (2008)

#152

Post by lostmsu »

koonsolo wrote: post #133
s1k3s wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but here's the thing: I do understand the event loop, I understand the sync/async models in JS but I have very little knowledge of how setTimeout works in this context. That's because I've never used it, and I've never used it because the book that I read 15 years ago about JS said something like this: "Here's a function that allows you to run some code after some time. If you feel the need to ever use it, it me…

I'm the kind of interviewer that would keep asking until you do know. I would actually start with asking about the event loop. Don't know that, no problem, what happens with setTimeout()? Don't know that, no problem, how does async, await work? Don't know that, why do we need WebWorkers? What happens with an infinite loop? How do events work? etc. There are plenty of ways to see how this person came into contact with…

Meh, I'm with previous commenter. I know what the event loop means, that JS is single threaded, and what setTimeout is supposed to do under normal circumstances. I consider the question stupid, moreover your answer to it is likely incorrect, because it depends on the implementation. I bet Node.js never interrupts the loop for example (and I never even done Node.js, it would just be a sane thing to do).

And yeah, you might agree on Node behaving differently, but that just proves the question is very bad. Even with "in browser" clause the answer can change tomorrow for all we know.

It is like asking about undefined C++ behavior in an intentionally very bad example.

Re: My Job Interview at Google (2008)

#153

Post by cdent »

rwmj wrote: post #73
cdent wrote: post #39

These sorts of interviews do not find good software developers, they simply remove a certain kind of bad (not really) software developers along with a whole host of very good software developers that don't fit a very specific mold (perhaps people who write cheery blog posts about how fun it was? ...weird). Which is fine if you're the company doing the interviewing, but completely time wasting for the interviewee. In…

I'm not going to defend this style of interviewing, but I think it's useful to have tests which filter out people who cannot program at all. If you do any hiring you'll know that a surprising proportion of interviewees who make it to an on-site interview for software positions simply know nothing about the subject. When I did interviews at my start-up we'd have a Linux machine connected to a projector for interviewee…

Sure, can't dispute what you say. There has to be some amount of "you must be this high to ride this ride" but you don't need to measure 7 times or whatever before thinking the first measure was accurate.

I've been on both sides of the interviewing tables many times and the processes that worked the best were the ones that involved telling stories to another another and seeing how the other reacted. You know, actually interviewing, humans having a conversation.

Re: My Job Interview at Google (2008)

#154

Post by koonsolo »

lostmsu wrote: post #152
koonsolo wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the kind of interviewer that would keep asking until you do know. I would actually start with asking about the event loop. Don't know that, no problem, what happens with setTimeout()? Don't know that, no problem, how does async, await work? Don't know that, why do we need WebWorkers? What happens with an infinite loop? How do events work? etc. There are plenty of ways to see how this person came into contact with…

Meh, I'm with previous commenter. I know what the event loop means, that JS is single threaded, and what setTimeout is supposed to do under normal circumstances. I consider the question stupid, moreover your answer to it is likely incorrect, because it depends on the implementation. I bet Node.js never interrupts the loop for example (and I never even done Node.js, it would just be a sane thing to do). And yeah, you…

Then please enlighten me what frontend questions you ask in your interviews.

By the way, only 1 out of 10 frontend developers can answer what the event loop is, according to my experience.

Re: My Job Interview at Google (2008)

#155

Post by higeorge13 »

robinduckett wrote: post #34

I recently had an interview at a taxi firm that followed this format. One two three pre-interviews followed by a day of 5 grueling 1 hour interviews. I didn't get the role. Apparently the frontend guy I had the first interview of the days five was concerned about my technical skills. I mean, I find it insulting, having worked for the last 12+ years as a developer to be told that there were "concerns about your techni…

IMO the take-home tests close to the job's technical requirements and followed by 1-2 technical interviews to discuss its details and potential improvements is probably the best interview method. It gives a chance to both parties to get to know their potential future colleagues and see their technical background, skills and effort on solving an actual problem that could be part of their daily tasks.

And it gives you the right, if you feel 100% ok with what you delivered and you hear an excuse of lack of technical skills to skip the job and look for something else. Whereas having to pass 6 interviews with random CS and DS questions and problems where you have to memorise algorithms which you will never use in your daily work and then finally be rejected because you forgot one of them is way worse and has probably deteriorated the software engineering industry as a whole.

Re: My Job Interview at Google (2008)

#156

Post by wayanon »

robinduckett wrote: post #34

I recently had an interview at a taxi firm that followed this format. One two three pre-interviews followed by a day of 5 grueling 1 hour interviews. I didn't get the role. Apparently the frontend guy I had the first interview of the days five was concerned about my technical skills. I mean, I find it insulting, having worked for the last 12+ years as a developer to be told that there were "concerns about your techni…

What sort of salary range dictates that kind of interview process? It seems crazy to me - it isn't the CIA.

Re: My Job Interview at Google (2008)

#157

Post by StreamBright »

chrisseaton wrote: post #36
StreamBright wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is notoriously bad with these interviews. Most famous case is the Homebrew guy. I got turned down once because I haven't had a degree in CS. They knew that in advance yet they did the whole round.

> I got turned down once because I haven't had a degree in CS. This doesn't make any sense - the employ I'm sure thousands of people without degrees in CS.

Amazon took me and others, in fact, during my time one of the most senior engineers did not even finish high school. They don't care.

Re: My Job Interview at Google (2008)

#158

Post by raverbashing »

rasz wrote: post #78
MattGaiser wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to remember that the hour hand slightly moves.

First you need to know/remember how analog clocks looked like back in the day.

Back in the day?

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=analog+clock

Though I was surprised the autocomplete suggests "analog clock for kids learning"

Re: My Job Interview at Google (2008)

#159

Post by kv_hrishikesh »

Lewton wrote: post #47
chrisseaton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe Google scale isn't for me. Google employs the very elite of the elite. If you're working there you're probably at the very top of your field. Obviously not every can meet that standard and there's no shame in not being the absolute best.

> Google employs the very elite of the elite I needed that laugh, thank you!

Google has at least 50K employees, spread all over the world. I guess it is quite possible to gather and recruit 50K employees who are much better developers than most others outside but I would not (rather cannot) call each one of them elite of the elite !

Look, a great deal of valuable software has been created by Google and other FAANGs. But I reckon most of that value has actually been created by the first or the best 5000 or maybe 10K employees at most. Most of the others in Google are enjoying the fruits of their genius, and they don't really have to perform any greater miracle than moving protocol buffers around. Still, no doubt that they are highly competent software developers and passed tough interviews. Not to imply that Google interviews can even distinguish between a genuinely talented programmer from a diligently-practicing-over-a-year leetcoder.

Re: My Job Interview at Google (2008)

#160

Post by jshevek »

chrisseaton wrote: post #37
Rockslide wrote: post #8

Reading that stuff always makes me feel incredibly stupid (or rather clueless). I wouldn't be able to answer most of those questions off the top of my head. Including this weird clock hand question (which is probably some trivial math that might or might not have been taught to me more than a decade ago and which I never ever actually applied since). Then I probably have to remind myself that I'm (halfway successfull…

> Maybe Google scale isn't for me. Google employs the very elite of the elite. If you're working there you're probably at the very top of your field. Obviously not every can meet that standard and there's no shame in not being the absolute best.

Is this still true? I know they strove for this 15 years ago, with much success. From what I've seen in the past decade, I highly doubt that this is still true. And I'm not speaking of Google's products, but other aspects like their culture, the opinions of academics, media reports, etc.
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