An invisible desktop application that will help you pass technical interviews

Post by zabzonk » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 10:12 AM UTC

colinb wrote: post #10

I’m reasonably certain that I interviewed someone using this or something like it in the last few days. Lots of eye scanning while looking above the window they’d been typing into. Pauses. Big pastes. One of my excellent colleagues noticed that the candidate made use of exciting C++ casts before ever defining the variable’s types. Complete inability to explain or debug the code just written. So. Frustrating in two di…

Post by 7734128 » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 10:14 AM UTC

colinb wrote: post #10

I’m reasonably certain that I interviewed someone using this or something like it in the last few days. Lots of eye scanning while looking above the window they’d been typing into. Pauses. Big pastes. One of my excellent colleagues noticed that the candidate made use of exciting C++ casts before ever defining the variable’s types. Complete inability to explain or debug the code just written. So. Frustrating in two di…

Post by IshKebab » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 10:16 AM UTC

sirwhinesalot wrote: post #29

I don't get why companies waste time with this sort of interview that just turns into this stupid cat and mouse game. Even ignoring this sort of software, someone cramming leet code exercises is the same thing in my view (they won't remember or use in their work 99% of that stuff). Just talk to the person, talk about the sorts of problems you expect them to solve. Can they understand the problem? Do they have ideas o…

Post by sirwhinesalot » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 10:22 AM UTC

IshKebab wrote: post #45

sirwhinesalot wrote: post #29

I don't get why companies waste time with this sort of interview that just turns into this stupid cat and mouse game. Even ignoring this sort of software, someone cramming leet code exercises is the same thing in my view (they won't remember or use in their work 99% of that stuff). Just talk to the person, talk about the sorts of problems you expect them to solve. Can they understand the problem? Do they have ideas o…

I think it's worthwhile doing simple coding tests to check that the interviewee can actually code. It seems crazy but I've interviewed plenty of people that couldn't write a simple for loop. I agree asking difficult leetcode questions is less useful because it depends so much on whether people have practiced (or now whether they cheat with AI). Often these questions are so difficult there's no way you could come up w…

Post by geraldwhen » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 10:25 AM UTC

sirwhinesalot wrote: post #47

IshKebab wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's worthwhile doing simple coding tests to check that the interviewee can actually code. It seems crazy but I've interviewed plenty of people that couldn't write a simple for loop. I agree asking difficult leetcode questions is less useful because it depends so much on whether people have practiced (or now whether they cheat with AI). Often these questions are so difficult there's no way you could come up w…

There are people who can talk their way out of trouble for sure. That is why I suggested the take home exercise followed by a discussion. It's only when there's niche knowledge involved that I think it isn't necessary, because you won't be able to answer any hard questions properly without having actually worked on code for that niche at one point or another.