Common, this is not cheating!
I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)
161–170 of 503 posts
Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)
#162Ok, so how are interviews fair at all then? How do they really tell anything about the person, other than the fact they are good at interviews? How is it fair that all the other people queued up to interview didn’t get a shot because they didn’t do as well in a 5 minute high pressure period? This 5 minutes probably determined the courses of their lives. What the fuck? Does anyone feel as flabbergasted about interview…
This sentiment gets shared a lot, but what's a better alternative? Without ignoring the reality that you only have 15-20 minutes with each candidate, some of them will be brilliant, and at least a third or more won't be able to code their way out of a paper bag. Oh, and keep in mind false negatives have almost no downside but false positives hurt the recruiter financially, and hiring bad people is expensive.
> keep in mind false negatives have almost no downside
Can it be said that refusing to hire women, for example, has almost no downside? In my opinion, this is a kind of ethical issue, because the "false negatives" are not just random. Audition-style coding quiz interviews tend to systematically discriminate against people who don't interview often, who haven't recently studied CS in college, who don't have time to "train" for interviews, or who tend to have situational anxiety in job interviews (which is fairly common, and not an indicator of on-the-job anxiety). A study sponsored by Microsoft itself showed that these interviews test for anxiety rather than skill. https://news.ncsu.edu/2020/07/tech-job-interviews-anxiety/
Remember that the author said, "A few weeks later I’m about to go in for my interview and I’m so nervous I can barely think straight." These screening tests were all-or-nothing, so if he flubbed the question, he was eliminated. You might respond, "Well, he made it through the onsite interviews." Yes, that's precisely why using coding tests as screening is so pernicious, because a short screening test is not a good indicator of what someone can do given more time and under better working conditions.
Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)
#163One time a company I interviewed with asked me obscure algorithm questions about playing card shuffling. As a former professional magician I knew the optimal answers instantly and could jot them down straight away. They had allocated an hour for answers I wrote in a few minutes. I could have told them I had a massively unfair advantage, but I did not bother. They were visibly impressed and told me I was moving on to…
This is what happened at my Oxford interviews. They asked me stuff that I knew the answer to, thinking it would be one of those see-how-he-thinks things.
Biggest problem was acting like I didn't know and getting it really fast.
Total lottery, they could have asked any number of things that I didn't understand.
Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)
#164When I asked well-known questions like this in an interview, I usually ask the candidate if they have seen the question before. Almost everyone says "no."
But if you then go on to solve the question without thinking about any alternatives, red flags go up. Even worse, some people would try to pretend that they didn't know the answer. Their line of thought to the solution would be a LOT more linear and less branchy than someone who truly didn't know. I would never fail someone who found the answer to the question, but I did note the possibilities: either they lied about knowing the answer, or are very smart and lucky to get straight to the answer.
Now, I was happy if the candidate said "yes" and gave me the solution. Then we could move on to something else (usually an easier question), and I noted your preparation and honesty for the hiring committee.
Almost everyone who said "yes" got an offer at that company. Almost everyone who lied about their "no" didn't get hired.
By the way, this particular question has an easy way to weed out the mathematicians from people who are well-prepared: add another repeated number. It's possible to solve for both that are repeated.
Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I once worked at a tech-focused games company (sadly no longer existing) which had the best interview process I’ve ever seen. They had this massive programmer test. It was something like 40 pages long, hardcopy, double-sided. With answers needing to be written on the test generally in essay format; no computer allowed (and so no real coding involved; it was all about concepts and not about syntax). It covered everyth…
Do you mean by hand, with a pen? The least I would do is politely decline such an interview. I would be sorely tempted to give them the choice between letting me use a keyboard or hearing from an ADA lawyer.
wow. Does ADA lawyer thing work with whiteboard interviews?
I'm only half-sarcastic, I hate my handwriting and this makes whiteboard interviews double hard for me.
Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)
#166One time a company I interviewed with asked me obscure algorithm questions about playing card shuffling. As a former professional magician I knew the optimal answers instantly and could jot them down straight away. They had allocated an hour for answers I wrote in a few minutes. I could have told them I had a massively unfair advantage, but I did not bother. They were visibly impressed and told me I was moving on to…
I’ve had this happen to me before and disclosed it during the interview. Consistently, the response was the interviewer telling me they were impressed that I was well prepared, and to go ahead with the answer.
Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)
#167One time a company I interviewed with asked me obscure algorithm questions about playing card shuffling. As a former professional magician I knew the optimal answers instantly and could jot them down straight away. They had allocated an hour for answers I wrote in a few minutes. I could have told them I had a massively unfair advantage, but I did not bother. They were visibly impressed and told me I was moving on to…
I’ve had this happen to me before and disclosed it during the interview. Consistently, the response was the interviewer telling me they were impressed that I was well prepared, and to go ahead with the answer.
I usually asked as an interviewer if you had seen the material before. If you were honest, it was very impressive, you could give your solution, and we could also cover other material.
Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)
#168This happened to me with multiple questions when I interviewed for a Facebook internship back in 2010.
I didn't really understand that this was bad (if I wasn't supposed to memorize the answers to all the questions, why were they all online and completely unrelated to the skills needed to be a developer?)
The interviewer got upset and asked me a poorly worded question which I think he made up on the spot.
Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)
#169Ok, so how are interviews fair at all then? How do they really tell anything about the person, other than the fact they are good at interviews? How is it fair that all the other people queued up to interview didn’t get a shot because they didn’t do as well in a 5 minute high pressure period? This 5 minutes probably determined the courses of their lives. What the fuck? Does anyone feel as flabbergasted about interview…
I also need "time and space to think" (and so would most people), but given the choice between someone who needs time and space to think, and someone who doesn't (either works well under extreme pressure or is just that self-confident), who would you choose? Sure interviews are unfair (there are many problems like the one described in TFA, as well as people who just practice the skill), but are there better options?
You should assume that someone who impresses you without needing time to think likely knew the answer already.
Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)
#170I cheated on the interview for my current job. The question was posted on GlassDoor and from there I found the GitHub repo they were using.
Is it so bad if you’re able to implement it in real time and all through the trade offs?