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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

#91

Post by sajithdilshan »

Brain teaser questions are the dumbest thing one can ask in a software engineering position interview. One time I interviewed for Deutsche Bank. There were two interviewers and one guy joined half way through the interview and was completely focusing on something else.

At the end of the interview other interviewer asked from the distracted guy if he has any questions and he came up with the stupidest brain teaser question ever, I don't even remember what it was, but after I answered it, he changed it again and then I asked the answer from him, and was very arrogantly said "I'm sure you know the answer" and I immediately said back, "But I guess you really don't know the answer to your own question right?". He was dumbfounded. I think he didn't expect me, the candidate to call him out.

Afterwards, I immediately sent and email to the recruiter about how bad the interview was and one interviewer was being more than 30 mins late and withdrew from the process and added Deutsche bank to my black list.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#92

Post by benrutter »

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)`.

Those kind of abstract CS interview questions never feel that helpful to me, but in all honesty, your story sounds like a job of the interview working.

You were able to demonstrate that you were enthusiastic and knowledge about programming as a whole, which is probably more helpful than what they were originally trying to test for.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#94

Post by robocat »

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

Next bail 10 litres of water from the lake into the open-topped boat.

What are the effects of the 10 litres of air displaced from within the boat?

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#95

Post by bitwize »

Questions like this, and things like Leetcode, etc., are a measure of not only your intelligence, but one of the most valuable skills you can have as an employee: the ability to "carry a message to García".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Message_to_Garcia

That is, when given an assignment, to faithfully carry it out to the end, without wasting your superior's time with pointless questions or excuses as to why it cannot be done. This, and this alone, is what separates the outstanding employees from "the imbecility of the average man". Tim Bryce has observed that the average programmer is mentally lazy and prone to sloppy thinking; simple tests like this will help to weed these out. The sillier, the better, in fact, as long as the puzzle actually has a solution. OP has failed the test, and justly gotten himself preemptively fired for insubordination.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#96

Post by FartyMcFarter »

buildbot wrote: post #16

Counterpoint to many responses here - when I have interviewed people, it’s a really positive signal if the candidate says they have already seen a problem- the we can move onto something more interesting! Not solving does not mean failure either. As a candidate myself I always mention if I have seen similar problems, such as finding primes - real example, and I was hired on that loop at Microsoft! On the other hand,…

> As a candidate myself I always mention if I have seen similar problems, such as finding primes - real example, and I was hired on that loop at Microsoft!

Normally I'm completely in favour of being honest about this (and would almost certainly do it myself), but in the case of something as common as "finding primes" I'd think it's OK to just do it. Does any interviewer really expect that the majority of candidates haven't look at basic prime finding and primality checking algorithms?

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#97

Post by anal_reactor »

bitwize wrote: post #87
anal_reactor wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not wrong, especially at the time. I excel when I'm given my own chunk of job to work on with certain degree of freedom. I don't butt uninvited into other people's decisions, I expect others to do the same with me. I totally suck at meetings where the goal of the meeting is to make sure that everyone feels like their voice is being heard.

IMO diving people into small groups, sometimes groups of one, with API between them, is the correct way of managing employees. I really dislike the "everyone does everything" paradigm that my current workplace applies because the end result is that there is no design, we just keep stacking features until something gives, and then we have a project "someone please unfuck the application".

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#98

Post by alternatex »

mrheosuper wrote: post #57

I have question for MS people. How do you guys view external contractors(the one with email address start with v-xxx) I was contractor for MS for a while and it was not a very positive experience. i was kind of being forgotten and only be mentioned when convenient. I went by months without any actual real work done.

Speaking as someone who worked offshore for most of their career and is now a full time employee at MS.

Vendors are treated as vendors usually are. They are given the work that nobody wants (work that provides no career growth and usually is uninteresting), they get the least amount of attention and mentoring, they are expected onboard quickly with little help from the team, etc.

I have noticed that I'm more empathetic to vendors than people who have never been the offshore/contractor person.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#100

Post by throwawayffffas »

waynesonfire wrote: post #45
jo-m wrote: post #37

Well, maybe you can use this to trick the interviewer into giving you a new problem if you don't know the first one they give you.

that seems very risky. it doesn't take much effort for the interviewer to spot a trickster, forfieting the interview. There is also no telling the second problem would be easier. I'd rather take my chances and hope i solve it or try to limp through with a hint.

That is exactly what the interviewer did. And yes solving the problem you know how to solve is the right move.
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