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Gaming CS Interviews

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Re: Gaming CS Interviews

#81

Post by solardev »

sarchertech wrote: post #57
leetrout wrote: post #2

> Guidance is expected; a great interview should be more of a conversation than a one-sided question and one-sided answer. I had a particularly awful interview at Google where the interviewer scoffed at me needing assistance. And in an interview at Twitter with a xoogler they asked me what I knew about number theory and I said "nothing" and they said they majored in it and proceeded to ask me number theory questions.…

The fact that the twitter interviewer introduced themselves as a xoogler is absurd.

What the heck is a xoogler? Sounds like some sci fi slime mold monster.

Re: Gaming CS Interviews

#82

Post by Joker_vD »

orlp wrote: post #61
sfink wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't change the time complexity. Both are O(n). Your point about convenience stands, though. Actually, if you go into fully pedantic mode, the set version is worse. Hash-based set insertion is commonly taken to be O(1), but that depends on hash comparison being O(1), which depends on using single-word hash values, which means your n is bounded by eg 2^63 (50% occupancy) or whatever. Honestly fine in practice, b…

O(1) indexing into an array is a much bigger lie in practice than relying on single-word hash values. It breaks down much, much sooner which is why we have multiple levels of caches to try and hide this. In reality random indexing is O(sqrt(n)) for 2D memory chips, and at best O(cbrt(n)) in our 3D physical world.

And adding two numbers is also O(m+n) where m, n is their length in bits, sure.

Re: Gaming CS Interviews

#83

Post by cbozeman »

newshorts wrote: post #72
leetrout wrote: post #2

> Guidance is expected; a great interview should be more of a conversation than a one-sided question and one-sided answer. I had a particularly awful interview at Google where the interviewer scoffed at me needing assistance. And in an interview at Twitter with a xoogler they asked me what I knew about number theory and I said "nothing" and they said they majored in it and proceeded to ask me number theory questions.…

My google coding interview was much l33t. He asked me a graph search question. However at the time I didn’t know what a graph was. I’m self taught. But I did understand the ask, which was to find a path through a series of locations. I also happened to have some experience with slime mold finding optimal paths and once even tried to simulate it using a genetic algorithm. That was the best solution I could come up wit…

> and its not an optimal solution.

Therein lies your problem, and you can see it writ large on everything Google does. Because they're so dominate at so many things (search, video hosting / streaming, etc.), anything that doesn't fall under "optimal solution" and "immediately profitable" goes to the waste bin near immediately.

There are entire websites dedicated to how fast Google kills a project that could have been really great with a year or two of love and care.

They've come to expect overnight success because it's been so dramatic for the past two decades. This blinds them to a lot of opportunities, and it comes, pretty much, from the top down and has filtered into nearly everyone.

> “google missed an opportunity to hire someone who might approach things a bit differently”.

That isn't what they want. See above. Optimal solutions, instant / near-instant profitability.

Re: Gaming CS Interviews

#84

Post by solardev »

thallium205 wrote: post #53
Eleison23 wrote: post #51

The first time I encountered a "riddle" type interview question, I'd already held 5+ jobs and I nominally had 8 years' experience in IT. The job was for a Unix sysadmin job in academia. The interviewer described a room with two lightbulbs in it, and a room down the hall with two switches, and I was supposed to figure out which switch controlled which bulb without going back-and-forth so much. I was stumped & didn't r…

Bulbs nowadays are LED and don't get warm.

As an aside, this isn't really true. LEDs are way more efficient (more watts in visible light and not just heat), but not 100% so. They still get warm and need heat sinks and sometimes airflow, etc. or they can still overheat.

If you leave a LED bulb on for a while next to one that's been off, you can definitely feel the heat difference with your bare hands.

This is especially true at the higher end of lumen output, where you're optimizing for peak brightness instead of max efficiency. The power vs brightness curve isn't linear for a given emitter (and the human perception of brightness isn't linear either).

A LED that's twice as bright will be more than twice as hot. If you have a bright headlight it will typically be in metal housing that also doubles as a heat sink, and probably have internal thermo regulation to turn itself down before overheating.

Re: Gaming CS Interviews

#85

Post by cbozeman »

parimal7 wrote: post #38
IshKebab wrote: post #25

Hmm I feel like the best way to "game" these interviews is just to learn solutions to the top 100 leetcode questions and then act as if you're figuring it out on the spot. That's what I started doing in preparation for a Facebook interview but I think that's not actually going to happen in the end anyway due to the hiring freeze and also the ridiculous H1B situation.

Recently gave an interview where they asked me to open my Leetcode profile, and checked if there are any prior submissions to the asked questions. ¯\(ツ)/¯

Nice, so now everyone has to further game the system by deleting their real profiles, making fake ones, and saying, "I don't use Leetcode."

Re: Gaming CS Interviews

#86

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

solardev wrote: post #81
sarchertech wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that the twitter interviewer introduced themselves as a xoogler is absurd.

What the heck is a xoogler? Sounds like some sci fi slime mold monster.

Xoogler is a slang term for someone who used to work at Google (ex-googler).

Re: Gaming CS Interviews

#87

Post by cmeacham98 »

newshorts wrote: post #72
leetrout wrote: post #2

> Guidance is expected; a great interview should be more of a conversation than a one-sided question and one-sided answer. I had a particularly awful interview at Google where the interviewer scoffed at me needing assistance. And in an interview at Twitter with a xoogler they asked me what I knew about number theory and I said "nothing" and they said they majored in it and proceeded to ask me number theory questions.…

My google coding interview was much l33t. He asked me a graph search question. However at the time I didn’t know what a graph was. I’m self taught. But I did understand the ask, which was to find a path through a series of locations. I also happened to have some experience with slime mold finding optimal paths and once even tried to simulate it using a genetic algorithm. That was the best solution I could come up wit…

I think you're a bit full of yourself here. There are objectively correct ways to search a graph, and it sounds like your solution was nowhere close.

You didn't get rejected because you "did not say the word graph", you got rejected because your solution was very wrong.

Software engineering is not just about knowing syntax, CS degrees include a Data Structures & Algorithms class for a reason.

Re: Gaming CS Interviews

#88

Post by manfre »

ZiiS wrote: post #80
leetrout wrote: post #2

> Guidance is expected; a great interview should be more of a conversation than a one-sided question and one-sided answer. I had a particularly awful interview at Google where the interviewer scoffed at me needing assistance. And in an interview at Twitter with a xoogler they asked me what I knew about number theory and I said "nothing" and they said they majored in it and proceeded to ask me number theory questions.…

Whist number theory may never come up in Django tooling. "Something you don't know" always will; it is valid to try and determine how people respond to questions they don't know the answer too.

If the candidate says they don't know a topic, that is a valid response. It's not worthwhile to ask detailed questions about the topic. That's a sign of an inexperienced and/or unprepared interviewer.

Re: Gaming CS Interviews

#89

Post by leetrout »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #12
leetrout wrote: post #2

> Guidance is expected; a great interview should be more of a conversation than a one-sided question and one-sided answer. I had a particularly awful interview at Google where the interviewer scoffed at me needing assistance. And in an interview at Twitter with a xoogler they asked me what I knew about number theory and I said "nothing" and they said they majored in it and proceeded to ask me number theory questions.…

Really sounds like the guy wanted to talk about himself instead of actually interview you. I hope you were able to send some feedback to his superior, since they missed a hire because of his shit.

They were well aware of how he acted. I was warned by another interviewer earlier.

"Whats the rest of your day?"

"Oh. X is from Google and he still does their style of interviewing"

Re: Gaming CS Interviews

#90

Post by mathattack »

Planktonne wrote: post #7

If you're using an interview that bares 'little relevance to an employee’s day-to-day work' and that requires dedicated prep to pass, then what you're doing is optimising a process for finding people who will tick boxes and jump through meaningless hoops. That's fine - some jobs do require that - but it does mean that any 'best and brightest' rhetoric should be shelved. Everyone knows that tech hiring is broken, but…

This happens in any high paying industry where candidates vastly outnumber their capacity to interview well. Graduates of top schools have to jump through tons of hoops to get a Goldman interview or work the (virtual) mailroom at a talent agency.
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