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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

#121

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?

I find it very easy to solve some of these physics questions by thinking about a degenerate version of it instead, with exaggerated parameters (since these physics phenomenons are described by continuous/monotonic functions). So for the bowling ball, I replace it with an imaginary marble weighing 1 ton and the answer is now self-evident.

Will a one ton marble embed into the lake bed?

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#122

A friend told me about his AWS interview experience. It was a case study describing a potential client, their needs, limitations, etc - trying to be “realistic”. In the end it came down to either pressuring the client to embark on a complex cloud transition in time for a major sports event (that was a make or break event for the customer) or, as my friend recommended, start with a PoC but do the risky transition afte…

Plot twist: the interviewer despises the internal culture and did this as a way to send a signal that the interviewee shouldn't work there regardless of how well the interview went.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#123

A friend told me about his AWS interview experience. It was a case study describing a potential client, their needs, limitations, etc - trying to be “realistic”. In the end it came down to either pressuring the client to embark on a complex cloud transition in time for a major sports event (that was a make or break event for the customer) or, as my friend recommended, start with a PoC but do the risky transition afte…

> He didn’t get the job because even though the technical attributes were all good, he should have pressured the customer. I'd say he didn't get the job because they would have asked him to pressure customers day in day out, he would refuse, never get promoted and be otherwise miserable in an aggressive culture. IMHO he shouldn't change his answer to please the interviewer, the process is working as intended and I'd…

Yes, strongly agree with this.

The goal when interviewing is not "get the job", it's "am I a good fit for this role".

If the company is some weird dysfunctional hierarchy run by socio-paths, I'll be happier elsewhere.

Or to put things in a much more pretentious manner - If you're too stupid to appreciate my genius, you don't deserve to work with me :)

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You drop a microscopic black hole off a boat into the lake. Does the water level increase or decrease?

The water level decreases, along with the shore and anything with it falling within the event horizon. Any other apocalyptic brain teasers?

You drop a bowling ball off a space boat into a black hole. Has the amount of mass inside the universe increased, decreased, or stayed the same, ignoring the effects of all other changes?

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#125

My favorite (probably apocryphal) Microsoft brain teaser question I've heard is, "If you had to move Mt Fuji, how would you do it?" I've never interviewed there, or been asked that question, but I think it would be a lot of fun to answer.

> "If you had to move Mt Fuji, how would you do it?"

Wait 1s.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#127
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…

> 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.

Well, I've been coding for 15 years (of course walking through data structures, JSON being one of the simplest), hung around HN and did interview puzzles a bunch, and yet have no idea what you mean by DFS nor ever needed to write a topological sorting implementation. No need to explain, I'll look it up for the fomo, but just to show that there's always experienced people who just didn't happen to come across something you say you've needed only on rare occasions ('something you might need')

Edit: oh ok, DFS is just depth-first search. Walking a tree. Okay yeah sure I can do that but it seems (from my security PoV) about as common to write tree parsers and sorting algorithms as designing a new cryptographic protocol, that is: hard avoid, rarely necessary

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#128

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?

I find it very easy to solve some of these physics questions by thinking about a degenerate version of it instead, with exaggerated parameters (since these physics phenomenons are described by continuous/monotonic functions). So for the bowling ball, I replace it with an imaginary marble weighing 1 ton and the answer is now self-evident.

That’s exactly the path I would have gone, ask clarifying question to confuse the interviewers: - Is my boat actually floating in the lake? - Is the lake filled with water? - If yes, what is the temperature gradient of that water from top to bottom? - How deep is the lake at the spot the ball is dropped? - What is the current time and phase of the moon, and what are the exact coordinates of the ball drop? - Are we doing this during some « end of the world gravitational collapse » event?

This would show them three things (which they did were not trying to find out, or maybe): 1. I think these questions are stupid. 2. I know that clear requirements and edge-cases are important 3. I’m an asshole and possibly not fun at parties

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The water level decreases, along with the shore and anything with it falling within the event horizon. Any other apocalyptic brain teasers?

You drop a bowling ball off a space boat into a black hole. Has the amount of mass inside the universe increased, decreased, or stayed the same, ignoring the effects of all other changes?

The amount of mass inside the universe has stayed the same, it just moved from the boat into the black hole.

You're really bored at work one day so to entertain yourself you create 1kg of antimatter along with 1kg of matter. Has the mass in the universe increased or stayed the same?

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