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I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

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Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#261

Post by buzzdenver »

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #211
buzzdenver wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on what made the question obscure? I'm asking because I used the question "print out the first 52 numbers in random order"in interviews before, and the answers seemed to give a good hint about understanding of basic CS concepts.

Interesting, what CS concepts were you looking for?

Stuff like whether the algorithm will always stop, or whether it runs O(N) vs O(N square). The main point to me was more to be able to have a conversation about the solution rather than it being absolutely right. I remember quite a few people using randomness, the most odd (and totally wrong) one using a random sort function over an array of (1..52).

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#262

Post by Kim_Bruning »

tzs wrote: post #244
Kim_Bruning wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what happens in your code if you just change the line j = random(0,51) to j = random(i,51) ?

That is indeed the simplest fix. It is called the Fisher-Yates shuffle [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher%E2%80%93Yates_shuffle#T...

Thank you!

I now have a bunch of theory to read through that I hadn't encountered before.

And I also have some more to think about how I assess people's skills too.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#263

Post by rhapsodic »

[deleted] wrote: post #250
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…

[deleted]

No post body was provided.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#264

Post by jedberg »

LanceH wrote: post #224
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 answered one of those mind benders nearly immediately in an interview. I figured out the trick as they were telling it basically. They asked me if I had heard it before. I hadn't. A final interview with the CEO and he asked if I had heard it before and I said I hadn't. I later realized based on how they were asking if I had heard it before, they thought I was lying. The question: You get on a ski lift going up. It'…

I hate this question because it has an implicit bias that most likely the interviewer never saw. It's biased towards people who have ridden on a ski lift, which generally means someone wealthier.

If you're a poor kid who's never been skiing, you'll have a harder time conceptualizing the answer.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#265

Post by bricemo »

stevenjgarner wrote: post #155

IMHO, this was not cheating. This is a phenomenon called success. If you are fortunate (?) to be around in the entrepreneurial world long enough, you will realize that intelligence, hard work, good time management etc are not adequate. They just qualify as deserving. There are serendipities that separate those who succeed from everybody else who was deserving. Survivor bias [1]. Calling Eli was your serendipity. The…

I agree, this is definitely not cheating. This is interview preparation. When I prepared for my FAANG interviews I googled so many questions that I couldn’t find another blue link, they were all purple. I prepped for them all. The more you want the job, the more you prep

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#266

Post by georgeburdell »

Sample size of 1, but it seems like questions used to be easier. I remember seeing this question on Leetcode, and this formula was covered in my high school math class and so I solved it within a few minutes. By contrast, I’ve had a couple of online assessments with Microsoft this past year and the problems were a lot harder (design a simple word processor with copy/paste, undo, etc, and the other was something about optimal scheduling of some finite resource)

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#267

Post by shanipribadi »

dorkwood wrote: post #246
LanceH wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I answered one of those mind benders nearly immediately in an interview. I figured out the trick as they were telling it basically. They asked me if I had heard it before. I hadn't. A final interview with the CEO and he asked if I had heard it before and I said I hadn't. I later realized based on how they were asking if I had heard it before, they thought I was lying. The question: You get on a ski lift going up. It'…

Is the answer zero chairs, since as far as we know there is only one chair on this lift?

could also be zero if it doesn't have any chairs at all because it's either a t-bar or standing gondola type.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#269

Post by lordnacho »

LanceH wrote: post #224
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 answered one of those mind benders nearly immediately in an interview. I figured out the trick as they were telling it basically. They asked me if I had heard it before. I hadn't. A final interview with the CEO and he asked if I had heard it before and I said I hadn't. I later realized based on how they were asking if I had heard it before, they thought I was lying. The question: You get on a ski lift going up. It'…

I suppose you assume the chairs are at even distances?

Imagine there's a circle with marks evenly spaced, eg roots of unity. When you rotate it halfway, the point that started at the bottom has passed (vertically) all the other points ahead of it, because at some stage each point has reached the top and started going down.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#270

Post by elbigbad »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #210
dekhn wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Really? You don't like to socialize with peers, with puzzles or tricky problems? Enough to make you refuse to join a company? Discussion has gone off the rails here. Maybe I didn't make it clear - the puzzles were during casual conversation at lunch. Rebutting something I didn't say, is not fair.

imho this is really negative. Early in my career I would have been self-browbeaten into answering such an interview question disguised as “fun” lunch conversation, but I would have hated it and thought badly of your company. Power dynamic, not subtle implications about getting the job, gaslighting, etc. all lead to a bad look.

At least normally when someone takes you out to the XYZ company “not part of the interview” lunch halfway through your eight hour interview loop and you chat small talk and background, there aren’t actual interview questions being thrown your way.

Imagine going to lunch and the interviewer striking up a conversation with “how many manholes do you suspect there are in New York.”

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