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

I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

facet.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 503 posts

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#381

Post by codechicago277 »

bricemo wrote: post #265
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

The only mistake the OP made was in acting like they hadn’t seen the question before, but other than that everything was fine. These code screen questions are usually a basic gut check and the real evaluation comes later at the on-site. Honestly the interviewer did a bad job though because the question clearly gives an advantage to someone who has seen it before.

Once I had a candidate struggle with my screening question, flattening an array of nested arrays, and that’s fine because I normally use that as an opportunity to see how they ask questions and work together on finding a solution. But the candidate went silent for about 5 minutes and then came back with a perfect solution, using iterators, which are a pretty obscure JavaScript feature. I later found that exact code block on the MDN site, and I was pretty shocked at how brazen an action it was, because if they had just asked for direction and admitted they were struggling they could have still passed the interview.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#382

Post by ldx1024 »

yarg wrote: post #272
ldx1024 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try {2,2,1}

/* I used to be able to do this without a compiler */ for(;;){ int i = values[0]; if(i == values[i])return i; values[i] ^= values[0]; values[0] ^= values[i]; values[i] ^= values[0]; } /* full test code, does java really not have Arrays.shuffle? */ public static void main(String...args){ final int result; Integer[] values = new Integer[12]; for(int i = 1; i

Nice!

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#383

Post by mjochim »

eastbound wrote: post #196
CoastalCoder wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If we are talking obligatory responses, don't forget this one: https://xkcd.com/221/

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#384

Post by mjd »

Agamus wrote: post #359
bricemo wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

As the adage goes, success is all about luck. Oh, and hard work. And the harder you work, the luckier you get.

"Fortune favors the prepared mind" (Louis Pasteur)

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#386

Post by IshKebab »

belter wrote: post #314
IshKebab wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the candidate can manage the question the Interviewer should be able also. You mean ask them the same question that they asked? Of course they'll be able to answer it. What does that prove?

Is that not what is happening, when the candidate pretends he never seen the question during the interview but in reality he practiced it before on LeetCode :-) And I mean a different question.

Ohhh you mean the candidate should just be able to test the interviewer if they want, to see how technically capable the interviewer is?

That's an interesting idea. I'd support that as an interviewer - I think the question candidates ask would also give you some information about the candidate too.

Sadly I doubt that sort of thing would ever become normal. Plus interviews already take enough time. Not sure I'd really want them to take any longer.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#387

Post by Nvorzula »

indrora wrote: post #341
drewcoo wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the point of the question? That would help determine whether or not this was cheating. Normally with things like this the interviewer claims to want to "see how you think." If some prepared rote answer passed this interview phase, at the very least, the interview failed to meet its stated goal. What's the difference between cheating and what's needed for your version of "success?" Can someone cheat their way…

These sorts of screener questions are at the level of "can you write a simple function and can you answer basic questions about it" A surprising number of candidates I've seen interviewed cannot do the following, my code screener question: "Write a function that, given a set of integers, determines the amplitude (difference between biggest and smallest) of the set." This is literally max(set) - min(set) in more words…

> "where might I use this function?"

I'm not so sure about this one. Software development is quite usually "build functionality to serve a given use case" whereas this line of inquiry is more along the lines of "find a use case for the given functionality".

Perhaps if you intend for the conversation to head into a chat about charting and data science?

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#388

Post by mynameisash »

gcommer wrote: post #306
spywaregorilla wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would have been a huge negative to me. I'm fine to chat with peers and discuss little riddles. That is not what's happening when you're interviewing me for a job position. You're not my peer. We're not having fun. There's a non-subtle implication that my ability to answer the riddle will impact whether or not I get the job. I would be very annoyed if someone asked a puzzle like this too. It's not a novel puzzle. It's…

In every interview I've done, lunch was explicitly bracketed by "this is a free, casual lunch that won't affect your interview at all". And as an interviewer, I've never been asked to report on lunch chats. > You're not my peer. We're not having fun. Actually, most interviewers are your peers, and they typically know that you're under interview stress and are trying to help. If you can't take a break and de-stress du…

> Actually, most interviewers are your peers

Every time I interviewed someone, I ALWAYS asked myself if I would want to work with this person.

Not just, can they do the job? Not just, are they technically competent? But, is this someone I would be comfortable going to, asking for help? Are they someone I can build rapport with, brainstorm new approaches and products with? Do they pass the "have a beer together" test?

Someone who explicitly has an attitude of, "You're not my peer, we're not having fun" doesn't sound like a good collaborator. Doesn't sound like someone who can be an approachable. Doesn't seem like a good mentor to newer members of the team.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#389

Post by AshamedCaptain »

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…

> I’ve had success pair programming together on a problem you both don’t know the immediate answer to.

This is not different to what is being described in TFA -- you do discuss with the interview in order to reach the solution, and as many have said in these comments already, if you just lash out the solution without revealing your thinking process, many interviewers get disappointed and may throw you another problem.

They are not simply asking you for your leetcode ranking (or whatever the name of the-site-of-this-week for this type of problems). That may actually be much more fair, but it is a much worse experience.

> I’ve also had success with allowing candidates to choose take home assignments.

I was giving take at home assignments until one candidate basically scolded me for wasting his time with these. I think he actually had a point -- I would probably refuse a take at home assignment myself -- and I have since stopped giving them (we hired that guy and he became a friend of mine). They are also not very fair -- they are skewed towards people with more free time at home -- and very prone to cheating, so you have do the whiteboard discussion afterwards. Overall I find this one of the worst experiences.

> I’ve also had success doing what every other other industry does: trust their resume, ask them to talk me through projects, and talk to references.

In the same way that the whiteboard interview is the only practical method I know for junior positions, at some level of seniority this becomes the only practical way to hire people. But like the whiteboard interviews, this is practically the opposite of fairness. Like in every other industry indeed.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#390

Post by mjochim »

boxed wrote: post #240
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'…

So... the answer is "impossible to know"? There's no data on how many seats there are, their distance, or whatever. There could theoretically be literally just the seat you're sitting on in the entire system. Then the answer is zero.

Let's neglect the horizontal distance the chair(s) travel at the bottom and at the top of the lift. Then the answer is "all of them," which holds true in your one-chair scenario.

The question reminds me of "how many groves are there on a vinyl record?"

Post reply on HN