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Inverting Binary Trees Considered Harmful

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Re: Inverting Binary Trees Considered Harmful

#111

Post by vidarh »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #66
Osiris wrote: post #48

The last interview I did was for a node.js position. I was told to bring my laptop. When I got there, the put me in an office and handed me a packet with instructions on checking out a nearly empty git repo. Then they said "Write an API that meets as many of the following requirements as possible and push the code. We'll be back in 3 hours." After 3 hours, I was taken to a conference room where I demonstrated the API…

That actually sounds like a decent way to do things. The only thing I'd change is making it shorter and trying to incorporate some pair programming at least to some minor degree to see how well they communicate along with developing.

Pair programming is incredibly divisive.

In a company that does pair programming, sure, do that, because those of us that hate pair programming would then instantly tell them we're not interested and leave rather than waste time on an interview somewhere we won't want to work.

But likewise, if you're not actually doing pair programming day to day, don't do it in an interview setting.

Re: Inverting Binary Trees Considered Harmful

#112

Post by vidarh »

jsolson wrote: post #89
scotth wrote: post #37

Fact is, it just isn't true. As a Googler, I am surrounded by enormously talented engineers, the likes of which I rarely encountered on the outside. They love what they do, and it shows. I have no doubt that there are false negatives/positives, but I am convinced that Google is doing something right.

I think we do very well at hiring the sort of people who already work at Google. The false positive rate seems to be very low, and the people I work with mostly seem very happy (I know I certainly am). The false negative rate worries me, though, and I keep wondering if there's a way I could structure my interviews (and feedback) differently to help change that problem.

You should worry about more than the false negative rate. You should worry about the reputation Google has developed that means a lot of those who have choices opt to not even consider interviewing at Google any more because it's not worth the aggravation.

Re: Inverting Binary Trees Considered Harmful

#113

Post by sriram_sun »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #59
swang wrote: post #2

Not sure what OP is being proud of exactly. I was subjected to this style when I interviewed at Twitter. Sorry my op sounded like I was accusing the author of something but this whiteboard approach is what I did at Twitter.

Yeah I don't think OP was defending Twitter I think it was just more of a story about how crappy the interview process is at most tech companies. My experience with Twitter was really odd. I knew someone internal and had them directly submit my resume with a recommendation. The resume was tailored for exactly the position they wanted showing me besting all of their requirements. I got an email 4 months later telling…

Did you consider the possibility that you might not be the only person tailoring their resume?

Re: Inverting Binary Trees Considered Harmful

#114

Post by benihana »

>The first programmer with/without a shadow walks in. He's quite annoyed, because he was neck deep in jira or git or debugging some hairy stack-trace on eclipse, and he's been unceremoniously yanked off to interview YOU - the new dude, who has no fucking idea how things really work here. Well, he must show YOU your place. You lowly worm...

Oh man, I hope I n ever come off that way when I'm the interviewer. I always try to give myself a good fifteen to twenty minutes to cool down before the interview and get prepared mentally. But I generally kind of look angry when I'm thinking and listening. Would it be helpful to explain to candidates that I have rbf?

Re: Inverting Binary Trees Considered Harmful

#115

Post by istvan__ »

reagency wrote: post #101
istvan__ wrote: post #86

Twitter interview went sideways, I got one shot with a question (that I won't share) that required finding Hamiltonian path in a tree, over the phone of course. I am not sure what is the mindset of the interviewer. I am hiring engineers (systems, software and security) in the last 5 years, got trained up on recruiting by Amazon, so I would say I have a pretty good understanding on hiring. The right approach with thes…

Loops in a tree?

Thanks for pointing out, my bad, fixed now. I meant Hamiltonian path. Guys might have leaked on Glassdoor among other questions.

Re: Inverting Binary Trees Considered Harmful

#117

Post by Gibbon1 »

DanFeldman wrote: post #7

I'm only a rising junior in CS on my second internship and I completely agree. I did really well in my Data Structs & Algorithms class (A+...) and I just hate these types of problems. I bombed Google and Dropbox's interviews, and am ready to never go through another process like that again if I can. I've been exceedingly lucky landing gigs at great companies that don't filter with these questions. I worked for LeadGe…

It's not just CS, but probably more common with CS. There are two kinds of engineers.

1. Those that love love love solving Puzzles. 2. Those that question whether solving this or that puzzle is going to bring in any money for the company.

For a places like google or deranged YC startups, whether what you are assigned has any bearing on cash flow is something way above the typical engineers paygrade. There are a lot of companies where that isn't true.

Re: Inverting Binary Trees Considered Harmful

#118

Post by kbd »

I interviewed at Google twice in Mountain View after getting through the whole phone interview and coding process each time, but failed in person. I was way too nervous and performed poorly, but did well enough that they wanted me to come back a third time. I said no thanks.

Ironically, I wound up working at Google anyway after my startup (where I was a core developer for years) was acquired. Another case of real-world skills not being borne out in Google's interview process.

Re: Inverting Binary Trees Considered Harmful

#120

Post by poikniok »

reagency wrote: post #101
istvan__ wrote: post #86

Twitter interview went sideways, I got one shot with a question (that I won't share) that required finding Hamiltonian path in a tree, over the phone of course. I am not sure what is the mindset of the interviewer. I am hiring engineers (systems, software and security) in the last 5 years, got trained up on recruiting by Amazon, so I would say I have a pretty good understanding on hiring. The right approach with thes…

Loops in a tree?

Yeah this one is simple, trees don't have loops.
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