I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#191

Post by grog454 » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 1:43 PM UTC

nikhizzle wrote: post #166

lrvick wrote: post #134

One 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.

The vast majority of your coworkers will have gone through a similar if not identical interview process. Do you prefer to work with people that pretend they've never seen a question before when they have? Then do that. Do you prefer to work with people that admit they have seen the question before but are not directly penalized for it? Then do that. If you somehow are penalized for it... you dodged a bullet.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#192

Post by twodave » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 1:45 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #173

lordnacho wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ya, this is hard. I bombed an Amazon interview because the interviewer asked me Alien Dictionary, a well known LeetCode problem that I already worked out while practicing. I told her outright that this was a problem everyone practiced, but she still dinged me for already knowing the answer and not going through the “figure this out flow” (admittedly, I could have handled that better, but it is actually difficult to w…

Is the answer to convert the letters to integers, then compare that list of integer strings before/after alphabetizing it? I haven’t studied leetcode (never needed to), but this is the first thing that occurred to me…

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#193

Post by HelloNurse » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 1:50 PM UTC

lapcat wrote: post #176

mewse wrote: post #150

Earlier 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…

> caveat: I wasn’t hired using that test; I had been hired as a junior long before, based on my portfolio and a short interview That's always the catch. The founders and initial employees of a company never had to go through the crappy hiring process that the company adds later as it gets bigger. And then we claim that the tests make tech a "meritocracy" and "objective", but those at the top are exempt from the tests…

On a related note, evaluating the quality of tests is even more challenging than writing them.

I recently tried interviewing for a growing small company, who nullified the initial good impression with a multiple choice test about certain technologies they were using, administered over the web by some test company.

The best questions were "which of these four functions or classes do you use to do $common task with $framework", testing documentation speed reading skills rather than actual coding skills; other questions were ambiguous, debatable or completely wrong.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#194

Post by matwood » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 1:50 PM UTC

sarchertech wrote: post #172

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> but given the choice between someone who needs time and space to think, and someone who doesn't. I’ve worked with people who needed time to think, but at the end of that time came up with better solutions than the people who were quicker. High pressure leetcode tests select for a specific type of thinker who may or may not be good at solving the problems you’re actually hiring them for. > but are there better optio…

Thing is, you can get the 'fake' programmer even with algorithm tests since they are only looking through a keyhole at someones overall employability. For many (most?) jobs work ethic, attitude, and don't be an asshole are all more important after a minimum programming bar is met.

Admittedly I've never had to hire at Google/MS scale, but my best luck hiring has been like you said - talk to people and be up front about expectations and that we fire if needed.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#195

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 1:51 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#196

Post by eastbound » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 1:54 PM UTC

CoastalCoder wrote: post #185

anothernewdude wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

np.random.choice(52, 52, False) + 1

I'd start with, "What do you mean by 'random'?"

Obligatory response, Dilbert’s “9… 9… 9…” number generator, “the problem with randomness, is that you can never be sure…” https://www.dilbert.com/strip/2001-10-25

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#197

Post by stutsmansoft » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 1:59 PM UTC

This proves that in the real world, problems are solved by research and thinking.

Whiteboard leetcode crap is simply a test for "have you heard the trick for this one or not?"

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#198

Post by steelframe » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:01 PM UTC

I've got a story of my own that has some remarkable similarities to this one. When I interviewed with Microsoft, they asked me to write a program that detects whether the stack grows toward lower address or higher addresses. Since I had studied computer engineering with an emphasis on CPU architecture, this was trivial for me, and I got the job.

A few years later I interviewed with Google, and they asked me the exact same question. I didn't tell them I've already done this question with another company, in part because I knew the answer the first time around and didn't see the point in potentially torpedoing an opportunity to work at Google. For another interview question at Google, they asked me to write a heap allocation algorithm for the Linux kernel, and since I had recently written some kernel code, I happened to know (at the time) exactly how to use the kernel linked list manipulation macros from memory, which really impressed the interviewer. I ended up getting the job at Google too.

Both jobs defined my career in many ways -- especially the Google gig. I've never performed quite so well on coding interviews since then, but somehow internal references and prior accomplishments seem to give enough momentum to make mediocre coding performance a non-issue. In fact I've never interviewed for a job for which I didn't end up getting an offer.

In my case, I really did spend a lot of time in college getting as much exposure in breadth and depth to computer architecture as I could, and so I feel I earned my career. But at the same time I can't help but wonder to what degree dumb luck came into play with respect to the interview questions I got asked when I started out in Big Tech.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#199

Post by systemvoltage » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:02 PM UTC

samatman wrote: post #160

mewse wrote: post #150

Earlier 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.

Are there better ways to deal with this than go straight to the lawyer?

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#200

Post by dekhn » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:02 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #188

lrvick wrote: post #134

One 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…

On the flip side, we questioned a candidate the usual way with pertinent technical challenges and so on. Then when driving in a van to lunch (our habit was to do a social segment as well as technical) I asked some puzzle questions - add 6 feet to a rope around the world, stretch it out and how far off the ground would it be? and suchlike. He was charmed, we brainstormed some answers and had a fun lunch. Years later,…

you would have lost me (principal engineer) with those questions.