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That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

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Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#81

Post by ventana »

Just don't ask brain teasers when you conduct an interview; I believe they give no valid signal at all, and I also believe Microsoft does not ask them anymore.

The coding questions that require an "aha!" moment are very similar to brain teasers, and should also be avoided.

When I conducted interviews for FAANG, I asked somewhat simpler coding questions, something around DFS and/or topological sorting (without calling it by name, of course), because those are thing which you might actually need to implement at work: people sometimes traverse JSONs, and people sometimes resolve dependencies. No one has ever told me "oh, I know this problem, it's DFS", because surely I know they know it. Just show me that you can write the code.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#82

Post by ventana »

keeda wrote: post #79

> Microsoft, of all places, might sound like a weird company to target in 2026. Heh, Microsoft might actually have been weird to target in 2015, especially in SV / startup circles, given that pg had declared it dead in 2007 ( https://paulgraham.com/microsoft.html ) I guess the Netherlands didn't get that particular memo. In 2026 Microsoft might actually be interesting again, given it's up there in the Mag 7 jockeying…

2015 was one year after Satya Nadella became a CEO, and Microsoft looked pretty OK to me back then. Much better than a few years before that.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#83

Post by lostlogin »

modeless wrote: post #65

Once long ago when I interviewed at Apple I was asked the classic "fork in the road, two guys, one always tells the truth and one always lies" riddle, with complete earnestness as far as I could tell. Possibly the single worst interview question I've ever been asked. Of course I told the interviewer I'd heard it before and then gave the correct answer. In my case we just ended up chatting about previous experience in…

I have no idea and want the answers:

Boat + bowling ball = level stays the same?

Ball roll = the constant gradient is quickest?

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#84

Post by LoganDark »

keeda wrote: post #79

> Microsoft, of all places, might sound like a weird company to target in 2026. Heh, Microsoft might actually have been weird to target in 2015, especially in SV / startup circles, given that pg had declared it dead in 2007 ( https://paulgraham.com/microsoft.html ) I guess the Netherlands didn't get that particular memo. In 2026 Microsoft might actually be interesting again, given it's up there in the Mag 7 jockeying…

Not super young but I've felt like Microsoft has been really sloppy. Not like, AI sloppy, but like, not good at their jobs. They've always just seemed stupid to me. Windows feels so basic and primitive compared to other operating systems.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#85

Post by viccis »

ventana wrote: post #81

Just don't ask brain teasers when you conduct an interview; I believe they give no valid signal at all, and I also believe Microsoft does not ask them anymore. The coding questions that require an "aha!" moment are very similar to brain teasers, and should also be avoided. When I conducted interviews for FAANG, I asked somewhat simpler coding questions, something around DFS and/or topological sorting (without calling…

>The coding questions that require an "aha!" moment are very similar to brain teasers, and should also be avoided.

The problem with these is that their solutions always seem trivial when you are shown them (or spend time solving yourself) and then mull over them for a while.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#86

Post by AlecBG »

lostlogin wrote: post #83
modeless wrote: post #65

Once long ago when I interviewed at Apple I was asked the classic "fork in the road, two guys, one always tells the truth and one always lies" riddle, with complete earnestness as far as I could tell. Possibly the single worst interview question I've ever been asked. Of course I told the interviewer I'd heard it before and then gave the correct answer. In my case we just ended up chatting about previous experience in…

I have no idea and want the answers: Boat + bowling ball = level stays the same? Ball roll = the constant gradient is quickest?

First one water is lower. Ball is more dense than water, in boat displaces its weight in water, in water displaces it's volume

Dip for hill roll is faster

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#87

Post by bitwize »

anal_reactor wrote: post #54
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An accurate approximation of a real work scenario would be sitting in a conference room for two hours while trying not to fidget or visibly look bored as co-workers make a mountain out of a molehill.

Once I've been to an interview where first they made us solve a problem in a group and then we had 1-1 interviews. After the group task the guy immediately asked me "Don't you have a feeling that you might've been forcing your opinions onto others?" to which I replied "Yes, I have.". Absolute fucking Chad I was.

Interviewer's notes: anal_reactor is stubborn, difficult to work with, has little regard for others' opinions, not a team player. Do not recommend hiring.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#88

Post by CodesInChaos »

AlecBG wrote: post #86
lostlogin wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea and want the answers: Boat + bowling ball = level stays the same? Ball roll = the constant gradient is quickest?

First one water is lower. Ball is more dense than water, in boat displaces its weight in water, in water displaces it's volume Dip for hill roll is faster

A dip increases the speed (decreasing travel time), but also the distance to travel (increasing travel time). Which of those effects dominates depends on the shape of the dip.

The hill decreases speed and increases distance, so it's always slower than the straight line.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#89

Post by [deleted] »

lostlogin wrote: post #83
modeless wrote: post #65

Once long ago when I interviewed at Apple I was asked the classic "fork in the road, two guys, one always tells the truth and one always lies" riddle, with complete earnestness as far as I could tell. Possibly the single worst interview question I've ever been asked. Of course I told the interviewer I'd heard it before and then gave the correct answer. In my case we just ended up chatting about previous experience in…

I have no idea and want the answers: Boat + bowling ball = level stays the same? Ball roll = the constant gradient is quickest?

[deleted]

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#90

Post by skylurk »

cronin101 wrote: post #77

My favourite interview question that I received was when I was asked to write code that would serialize/deserialize a binary tree and was told it was fine to use "any programming language". They received a crash course in the power of Haskell ADT and `deriving (Show, Read)`.

https://aphyr.com/posts/340-reversing-the-technical-intervie...
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