Sounds like somebody very butthurt that did not bother to do a quick search and see that first call is with a recruiter who knows little or nothing about technology and is looking for exact-word answers.
Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test
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Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test
#12They asked me the same questions back in 2012. I was applying for a Java developer position.
The person asking the questions said right from the start that he is not technical (he was a psychologist) and that he had a cheatsheet in front of him.
I passed that telephone call and failed the process later on another call (on the lightbulbs and the 100 floor building)
Really surprised to see that 4 years later they still do this.
Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test
#13I'm amazed he knew things in such detail. I mean who would know just how long a MAC address is? Or what the actual SYN/ACK etc tcp flags are? You just need to know what they're used for, and if you need the specifics, you'll find out with a single search. He seemed to know that as well though. Kernighan for bit twiddling algos, that kind of thing.
It's a bit strange to have someone non-technical interviewing a techie. You end up with stupid discussions like the one about Quicksort. If you point out qs is one of several things with the same big-O, you'll probably also get it "wrong". But the real problem is that a guy who is just reading off a sheet can't give any form of nuanced feedback. Was the guy blagging the sort algo question? Did he know if in detail? Does he know what the current state of research on that area is? There's no way to know that if your guy is just a recruiter, but I'm sure even a relatively junior coder would be able to tell if someone was just doing technical word salad.
I wonder what would happen if ordinary people recruited for medical doctor jobs? Would you be comfortable rejecting a guy who'd been in medical school for 10 years based on his not knowing what the "funny bone" is? Wouldn't you tell your boss that you felt a bit out of that league? It's amazing you can get someone to do this without them going red in the face.
Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test
#14It was not the answers but the cultural fit ehehe...
Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test
#15I feel sudden brick wall awaits in a recruiter career path once the google people read that.
Not only because of that interview, but the questions transforms into - who else have we missed from the great guys ...
Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test
#16Is this for real? Wow. Reads like someone spoofing the real Google interview. For "Director of Engineering" they have a technical illiterate (nothing wrong with that, in other contexts) check for literal matches of answers? the mind boggles. (I'm really having a hard time believing this is for real)
I've had somewhat similar experience with other big companies. People wonder why I hate to change jobs.
Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test
#17Ha ha re:
> 10. what is the type of the packets exchanged to establish a TCP connection?
> Me: in hexadecimal: 0x02, 0x12, 0x10 – literally "synchronize" and "acknowledge".
> Recruiter: wrong, it's SYN, SYN-ACK and ACK; if Google is down you will need to know this to diagnose what the problem is. We will stop here because it's obvious that you don't have the necessary skills to write or review network applications. You should learn the Linux function calls, how the TCP/IP stack works, and what big-O means to eventually qualify if you are interviewed at a later time. Good luck, bye.
That's embarrassing.
Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test
#18Is this common for higher level positions at Google? I've gotten a similar kind of phone screen, but for an entry level software engineer position, and getting a few "wrong" was not a big deal. It's just so they can avoid setting up a real interview with someone who doesn't know the basics.
If the call actually went like this, it seems like you just hit a new/not very good recruiter.
Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test
#19I would have stopped you half way through. You obviously know enough to move on.
Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test
#20This reminds me of the infamous Nigerian emails. They are so obvious for a reason - avoiding false positives - [1]. Cannot fit this same scheme in a Senior position recruitment at Google though.
[1] http://uk.businessinsider.com/why-nigerian-scam-emails-are-o...