Software engineering interview questions • Hacker News Board

Re: Software engineering interview questions

#21

Post by kyllo » Tue, Dec 23, 2014, 7:02 PM UTC

MoOmer wrote: post #6

Sites down; but, I wanted to add that at the peak of Hadoop hype, an unnamed company asked how I'd tally up occurrences of a value in a 1gb flat file, where the job would need to be done recurringly on multiple files, quickly. Without wanting to overthink it, I suggested a simple script iterating over the file, incrementing the key/values as they occur. Apparently the correct answer was a Hadoop job. Now, given that…

iterating over the file, incrementing the key/values as they occur

Isn't that exactly what the Hadoop job would have to do anyway? The whole point of Hadoop is to process the data in a single pass, which is what your method does. As long as you iterate over the file without reading the whole thing into memory first.

Re: Software engineering interview questions

#22

Post by bitwize » Tue, Dec 23, 2014, 7:03 PM UTC

BigChiefSmokem wrote: post #5

Best way is to paid-intern an engineer for a week/month and try them out (if they're willing) and see how they fit and might be able to expand on your current culture. That's really the only good way. Asking questions in an interview, no matter how clever or insightful they may be, has been and will forever be a crap shoot.

The point is, if you want to get an actual job in the actual tech economy -- not the ideal tech economy from your head -- better bone up on your brain teasers. And have a Word-format CV.

Re: Software engineering interview questions

#23

Post by ionforce » Tue, Dec 23, 2014, 7:05 PM UTC

IndianAstronaut wrote: post #17

daniel-cussen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the only really good way for the company , provided that it doesn't filter out good applicants who would have very good reason to decline leaving a full-time position for a chance at full-time somewhere else. I don't see how it's good for the employee though: the company is effectively shunting the risk of a bad hire from someone who is reasonably positioned to take the risk (despite what entrepreneur blogs may…

I could see this working if say the company said, let's try this out but let's do remote for weekends only. This way I don't have to quit my current job and they can try me out for a while before they hire.

What if both the hiring company and the applicant have lives on the weekend?

Re: Software engineering interview questions

#24

Post by pkaye » Tue, Dec 23, 2014, 7:07 PM UTC

fiachamp wrote: post #18

rcoder wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree strongly this is the best way to interview a candidate. It's even relatively easy to set up for a new grad or junior candidate who isn't currently working. They should of course also be local or have no family or professional commitments that make a week-long non-work trip difficult. Sadly, many of the best engineers I've worked with do have families, are working, don't live in the same town, and would absolu…

We've found a good middle ground. Giving the candidate a few days to do a test project that involves fixing a bug on the production site. Its something they can do at night after work, gets them resolving a real-life problem, seeing how fast they figure out the codebase.

Really good candidates will have multiple offers and given equal choices of companies, will choose those which make them not run through hoops.

Re: Software engineering interview questions

#25

Post by justizin » Tue, Dec 23, 2014, 7:08 PM UTC

kyllo wrote: post #21

MoOmer wrote: post #6

Sites down; but, I wanted to add that at the peak of Hadoop hype, an unnamed company asked how I'd tally up occurrences of a value in a 1gb flat file, where the job would need to be done recurringly on multiple files, quickly. Without wanting to overthink it, I suggested a simple script iterating over the file, incrementing the key/values as they occur. Apparently the correct answer was a Hadoop job. Now, given that…

iterating over the file, incrementing the key/values as they occur Isn't that exactly what the Hadoop job would have to do anyway? The whole point of Hadoop is to process the data in a single pass, which is what your method does. As long as you iterate over the file without reading the whole thing into memory first.

Yeah, if you described an actual fucking program, and their answer was the name of a software package that you could learn in a day and they've been trying to hire an expert in for six months, and you would still just use that software package to run your program, be glad you didn't get the job. ;)

Re: Software engineering interview questions

#26

Post by justizin » Tue, Dec 23, 2014, 7:10 PM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #22

BigChiefSmokem wrote: post #5

Best way is to paid-intern an engineer for a week/month and try them out (if they're willing) and see how they fit and might be able to expand on your current culture. That's really the only good way. Asking questions in an interview, no matter how clever or insightful they may be, has been and will forever be a crap shoot.

The point is, if you want to get an actual job in the actual tech economy -- not the ideal tech economy from your head -- better bone up on your brain teasers. And have a Word-format CV.

AND FOR CHRISSAKE KEEP YOUR SPARE PAGER BATTERY HANDY!

fuckin' word format resume. That is no longer a thing.

Re: Software engineering interview questions

#27

Post by cs02rm0 » Tue, Dec 23, 2014, 7:12 PM UTC

soperj wrote: post #8

BigChiefSmokem wrote: post #5

Best way is to paid-intern an engineer for a week/month and try them out (if they're willing) and see how they fit and might be able to expand on your current culture. That's really the only good way. Asking questions in an interview, no matter how clever or insightful they may be, has been and will forever be a crap shoot.

Honestly, as someone who would have to quit their current job to go work for another company, why on earth would I agree to that instability?

I'm a contractor working 6 months at a time on zero notice and even I wouldn't bother!

Re: Software engineering interview questions

#28

Post by pkaye » Tue, Dec 23, 2014, 7:12 PM UTC

laeus wrote: post #20

Bahamut wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, speaking as a software engineer, I highly agree - if a company tried to pull that on me, that would be a quick way for me to turn down the company. It doesn't make sense if the candidate is working for another company - why would the candidate use up all of his/her vacation for one company if the company isn't serious about bringing the person onboard full-time as a regular employee off the bat?

To be honest, having experienced the tremendous damage done by poor hires (and the amazing difficulty of getting rid of them once they're identified as such), I might see this as a pretty substantial benefit of working at a company that uses this method. Given that, I might be willing to participate in this kind of interview process. It would probably have to be a company I already know and admire for some reasons up…

Yes but by doing this they have shifted all the risks to the candidate. Unless the company is super hot or they substantially compensate financially for that risk.

Re: Software engineering interview questions

#29

Post by gortok » Tue, Dec 23, 2014, 7:12 PM UTC

The site sure starts out on 'dark pattern' footing. To sign up, you can link your LinkedIn, G+ (who has that?), github, or Facebook accounts (seemingly, not twitter), but once you do that, they claim there may be a username or email address conflict (even though you haven't provided an email address) so they want your email address as well.

The proof is in the pudding:

https://twitter.com/gortok/status/547468794160238592

They could just say, "Hey, we want your email address." Not "Gee, we don't know who you really are even though you linked your unique account to us; so we want you to provide your email address".

Not a good way to start our our relationship leetcode.

Re: Software engineering interview questions

#30

Post by matthewmacleod » Tue, Dec 23, 2014, 7:18 PM UTC

BigChiefSmokem wrote: post #5

Best way is to paid-intern an engineer for a week/month and try them out (if they're willing) and see how they fit and might be able to expand on your current culture. That's really the only good way. Asking questions in an interview, no matter how clever or insightful they may be, has been and will forever be a crap shoot.

This isn't the best way at all – you're going to end up with a candidate who wants/is able to agree to that, instead of a potentially much better candidate who won't.

Since I'd wager that the vast majority of skilled engineers would reject that offer outright, you end up really shrinking your pool of talent.