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Google rejected me and now I'm building a search engine

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Re: Google rejected me and now I'm building a search engine

#131

Post by arandomusername »

withinboredom wrote: post #119
arandomusername wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those aren't gotcha questions. And part of a real job involves solving real problems. In an interview, you have a very limited time, so you have to come up with questions that test the candidate's ability to solve problems within a certain timeframe.

Except the problem is (which I didn't state but pointed out) is that this isn't really a "problem." It's just math. That's it. If you want to know if I know how to multiply two numbers together, you might as well just ask me if I know what 2*2 is and move on to the next question.

Are you insinuating that the article writer doesn't know what 2*2 is? As their original answer was, "I don't know".

Re: Google rejected me and now I'm building a search engine

#132

Post by em-bee »

rasjani wrote: post #89
eterm wrote: post #9

It wasn't google, but last year I had the worst interview experience of my life when I was berated for not being able to remember if a System.Tick was 10nanoseconds or 100nanoseconds. I remarked that in the circumstances I'd need to know, that I'd google it and check the documentation to make sure I got it right. The interviewer (who I later found out was the founder/CEO) absolutely laid into me for that answer, sayi…

> I was berated for not being able to remember if a System.Tick was 10nanoseconds or 100nanoseconds. Had somewhat similar scenario. Company's internal headhunters had reached out to me once already before and I did few interview rounds with them and said no. Year later they reached out to me again and had to go thru tech interview again.. during that I did help(sleep) on python repl and mentioned why; since I haven't…

i recently failed a timed test because while it was asking a simple question about manipulating CSV data. i was unfamiliar with the CSV library because i simply never had to use CSV data before. so i had to look it up and that cost me to much time. on the other hand, another question in the same test was about variables in a function in a metaclass that were giving the wrong values because of a scope issue. i had enough experience to understand scope issues and was able to solve the problem easily.

the CSV question was easy to look up, and with time anyone could have solved it. failing it because it took to long was frustrating. the scope question would have been difficult to answer without experience, and even looking it up would not have been easy without knowing what to search for.

Re: Google rejected me and now I'm building a search engine

#133

Post by em-bee »

JohnMakin wrote: post #129
em-bee wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ouch, that is pretty rough. i mean i am happy that you found someone to give you the right answer. but i'd expect that the majority don't dare to do that in an interview session. i hope you are not rejecting people just because they actually try to answer that question.

no, I just want to see their reaction, but the “I wouldn’t” response strongly puts me into “hire.” To me it signals this isn’t a yes man or someone who’s going to waste man hours making something overly complex, which at my current small scale is incredibly valuable, I cannot afford to waste time. That may or not be correct but it often shows me how willing a candidate is to jump through hoops they think they need to…

i totally agree with you. i am just trying to see it from the candidates perspective. these questions are so common that i don't think many would have any idea what you are really after. so in a sense it still feels like a trick question.

so i wonder if there is any better way to test for this.

when i was doing an internship once the boss asked me to take care of some task, and i said no, because i was going for my lunch break now. later that day i got berated by my supervisor for denying the bosses request. it was a pretty frustrating experience, but i was to young to defend myself.

on the other hand, in china, where people are typically very subservient at work, i once hired a student, who, after about 3 months of working with me had the courage to argue a technical question with me and stand his ground defending his opinion. he had never worked for a foreigner before, and he certainly would never act like that with a chinese superior. when he started he barely even spoke english (he could read and write it though) so i felt pretty proud that he was able to make that change while working with me.

the point of that story is that the initial response in an interview may not be an indicator of future behavior because the behavior can be changed by how i treat my subordinates, welcoming critical responses and encouraging different opinions.

Re: Google rejected me and now I'm building a search engine

#134

Post by zzyzxd »

Borg3 wrote: post #27
kevmo314 wrote: post #5

I'm sure the post's author doesn't need interview advice anymore but in case there are any prospective interview candidates out there, completely freezing during an interview is a super negative signal. Even if you need to manually multiply out 2's on a whiteboard it would be more productive than saying "I don't know". In my experience the only reason you should say "I don't know" is if you're going to follow it with…

If you do NOT know, then answer that you do NOT know, unless you can speculate. Noone is omniscent. I really dont like when people with no knowledge trying guess the answer or speculate without any background. Im sure I would NOT want to work with such person.

It actually depends on what the interviewer wants to see in the candidate. Memorizing a specific implementation? Test their experience and skill for a new design? Or just some sort of personality test and see if they are honest?

As a candidate, if I do not know, I say I do not know. I can offer my thoughts on "but if I were to design this from scratch" based on my experience, but only if the interviewer is interested in that.

As an interviewer, I hate when candidates pretend (or believe) that they know something when they actually don't, and just confidently make stuff up like ChatGPT.

Re: Google rejected me and now I'm building a search engine

#135

Post by fragmede »

ryandrake wrote: post #122
toastercat wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always remember this old blog post: https://aneccodeal.blogspot.com/2014/02/interviewing-for-anx... I haven't done a whiteboarding interview for a while, but I remember them vividly. Hot flashes, sweating, stomach churning, anytime I'd be asked a question I am definitely capable of answering, my brain would shut down and refuse to start back up again. The most apt thing I could compare it to is stage fright. Even s…

Yea, the problem with the high-stakes, high-pressure whiteboard-hazing interview is that it is not testing a candidate's problem solving ability. It's testing their comfort level and ability to navigate high-stakes presentation/communication pressure cookers. Which may be great if you're looking for an unflappable smooth talking PM who will be doing presentations to VPs, but probably not great if you are looking for…

thus, take-home interview questions, but unfortunately those can be gamed too. The real one is referrals - someone you know's actually worked with them before and has good things to say, but the idea of a programmer's guild does not jive for some.

Re: Google rejected me and now I'm building a search engine

#136

Post by superb_dev »

xboxnolifes wrote: post #112
superb_dev wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel is actively committing a genocide right now. How is doing business with them not support for that?

Does owning a business in the US mean you support the bad things the US has done?

No, but if that business does work for the US then you’re potentially supporting the bad things that they’re currently doing (like aiding and abetting a genocide in Palestine )

Re: Google rejected me and now I'm building a search engine

#137

Post by blharr »

arandomusername wrote: post #115
notarget137 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I come to the interview to get a real job not to please the smart "gotcha!" recruiter.

Those aren't gotcha questions. And part of a real job involves solving real problems. In an interview, you have a very limited time, so you have to come up with questions that test the candidate's ability to solve problems within a certain timeframe.

It is a gotcha question. In fact, "log2 of 56 million" should probably be the best answer. It means you don't waste time brute forcing the problem and instead know exactly how to get the solution, but they wanted a specific answer that you compute by some heuristic. Why?

Either way, if a candidate misses such a question it shouldn't be a negative. Using such a question as a filter is a bit ridiculous.

Re: Google rejected me and now I'm building a search engine

#138

Post by JojoFatsani »

kevmo314 wrote: post #5

I'm sure the post's author doesn't need interview advice anymore but in case there are any prospective interview candidates out there, completely freezing during an interview is a super negative signal. Even if you need to manually multiply out 2's on a whiteboard it would be more productive than saying "I don't know". In my experience the only reason you should say "I don't know" is if you're going to follow it with…

I’d rather someone tell me they don’t know something than feed me a line of BS then show up to the job and not be able to do it. Not that leetcode is necessarily a true indicator of competency.

Re: Google rejected me and now I'm building a search engine

#139

Post by fragmede »

nine_zeros wrote: post #34
kevmo314 wrote: post #5

I'm sure the post's author doesn't need interview advice anymore but in case there are any prospective interview candidates out there, completely freezing during an interview is a super negative signal. Even if you need to manually multiply out 2's on a whiteboard it would be more productive than saying "I don't know". In my experience the only reason you should say "I don't know" is if you're going to follow it with…

> completely freezing during an interview is a super negative signal. I am sure you also go to your employers and tell them that asking super unnatural questions in a super unnatural pressure environment is also a super negative signal. You do this right? Right?

you don't?
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