Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Worst interview questions for software developers

fibery.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 253 posts

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#21

Post by the_only_law »

buggy6257 wrote: post #2

Depending on where you are, questions 1 and 3 are just straight up illegal. No interviewer in the US would dare ask about vices or your family situation unless they don’t mind shelling out lawsuit settlements to everyone they interview and decline to hire.

> No interviewer in the US would dare ask about vices

I actually saw a job application recently asking to confirm that you haven’t used any nicotine products in 6months in order to be hired. This was very strange as it was a 100% remote job so maybe it was HR/copy paste but the wording was bizarre . They made it clear that it was about nicotine and not just tobacco and explicitly called out things like gums or patches.

I did not continue the application. I assume now it was some useless virtue signaling related to young people and vapes or something. I’m not even sure they’d seriously test people, but it’s still ridiculous that according to what was written you could be denied employment or lose your job because you had a cigarette outside the bar last weekend or have been using nicotine gum to quit smoking

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#22

Post by mnd999 »

hezralig wrote: post #17
buggy6257 wrote: post #2

Depending on where you are, questions 1 and 3 are just straight up illegal. No interviewer in the US would dare ask about vices or your family situation unless they don’t mind shelling out lawsuit settlements to everyone they interview and decline to hire.

I have sat across from recruiters at a previous job, in California of all places, that would quite frequently ask these very questions. The question is, how would you prove you were asked these questions if you were being interviewed in a state that has 2 party consent laws for recording?

Ask the other candidates, it’s not so hard with glassdoor etc. The questions are a red flag, so you’d never want to work there but equally some free money from a discrimination lawsuit wouldn’t hurt.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#23

Post by rdoherty »

Worst one I got recently was "What is your perfect number of working hours per week?" I said 40 and the interview process was ended early after the CEO said "oh we put in 50 per week because we know it takes extra effort for a startup". I expanded on how 40 is what works for me, interview got very cold after that. I felt pretty incredulous after that. Especially when the recruiter asked if 40 was a hard requirement. I thought those types of startup cultures were long gone by now but I guess not!

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#24

Post by cpitman »

rdoherty wrote: post #23

Worst one I got recently was "What is your perfect number of working hours per week?" I said 40 and the interview process was ended early after the CEO said "oh we put in 50 per week because we know it takes extra effort for a startup". I expanded on how 40 is what works for me, interview got very cold after that. I felt pretty incredulous after that. Especially when the recruiter asked if 40 was a hard requirement.…

Sounds like it was actually a perfect question. It made it crystal clear that you and the company didn't see eye to eye on work conditions, and that neither of you would be happy working together.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#25

Post by ghaff »

chadash wrote: post #7
lofatdairy wrote: post #3

>4. Why do you change jobs so often (so rarely)? Am I wrong to think this seems at least somewhat reasonable? Like obviously it's annoying to explain yourself, but it takes time to on-board someone and for them to become productive and it seems reasonable to want someone to stay on long enough for that at least. This naturally applies less to those super engineers you barely need to train and have obvious experienced…

A short job or two, fine, but at a certain point it’s a pattern that needs a reason. If the reason is “my spouse was in the military and we moved around a lot for that, but we longer do”, that’s fair enough. If the answer is that you weren’t happy enough at your last jobs to stay for more than 12 months, then why should I think you’ll be any different at your next job?

How short? How many examples? And credible reasons, especially if I know something of the circumstances at various large companies.

I know personal counterexamples where someone verged on job-hopping who became a great relatively long-term employee. And I've also known people who had a single example of clear not-meeting-of-the-minds. But, in general, if there's a consistent pattern, no reason to believe you'll be different.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#26

Post by lp4vn »

Everytime they asked me "why should we hire you?", I always replied a small introduction saying that that position might be an interesting next step for my career followed by "and also your recruiter contacted me, so I guess you guys know better than me why you should hire me".

The oversaturated modern job market melted the brain of the HR departments to the point that they think it's a great privilege to work for them when they are just another company and you only want to earn a salary.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#27

Post by foreverCarlos »

cpitman wrote: post #24
rdoherty wrote: post #23

Worst one I got recently was "What is your perfect number of working hours per week?" I said 40 and the interview process was ended early after the CEO said "oh we put in 50 per week because we know it takes extra effort for a startup". I expanded on how 40 is what works for me, interview got very cold after that. I felt pretty incredulous after that. Especially when the recruiter asked if 40 was a hard requirement.…

Sounds like it was actually a perfect question. It made it crystal clear that you and the company didn't see eye to eye on work conditions, and that neither of you would be happy working together.

I would feel grateful for this question. It would allow me to quickly reject this company and move on.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#28

Post by chadash »

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #14
chadash wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A short job or two, fine, but at a certain point it’s a pattern that needs a reason. If the reason is “my spouse was in the military and we moved around a lot for that, but we longer do”, that’s fair enough. If the answer is that you weren’t happy enough at your last jobs to stay for more than 12 months, then why should I think you’ll be any different at your next job?

You'll never hear the real reason. So if you have an issue with this fact, don't invite the candidate to an interview. If you don't have an issue with it, then why ask? They'll never say "because I'm constantly looking for better opportunities and will jump ship when I can". This is what most of those questions on the list have in common: both sides of the table know that the answer will be contrived BS. They are a w…

Maybe I’m 80% sure I’m gonna pass on this candidate because I’m not confident they’ll stick around, but it can still be worth my time to get on a screener call and at least ask. There can be many reasons why someone jumps around frequently and maybe after hearing their story Ill be convinced that it’s a true story and a reasonable situation for them to be moving so much.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#29

Post by heavyset_go »

rdoherty wrote: post #23

Worst one I got recently was "What is your perfect number of working hours per week?" I said 40 and the interview process was ended early after the CEO said "oh we put in 50 per week because we know it takes extra effort for a startup". I expanded on how 40 is what works for me, interview got very cold after that. I felt pretty incredulous after that. Especially when the recruiter asked if 40 was a hard requirement.…

I've laughed in potential employers' faces when they said they expect 50 to 60 hour weeks from their hires. It just reeks of entitlement.

Re: Worst interview questions for software developers

#30

Post by joezydeco »

IncRnd wrote: post #6

4. Why do you change jobs so often (so rarely)? How does that matter? If I am a match for the company in terms of qualifications and personal qualities, how will my job history and reflection help? I changed jobs every year or so. Is that “often” or “rarely”? What’s wrong with changing jobs frequently? It is actually important to ask this of a candidate who seems to frequently change jobs. A hiring manager may not wa…

"I actually come prepared for this question, and have a line to explain each and every job I've departed in reverse chronological order. And I'd be happy to read them off if you'd like. You do? Okay...

  - VCs merged us with a Chinese acquisition and sent our work overseas
  - Manager ignored my memos for 5 years and then said "you have no new ideas" to my face in a review
  - Sales team demanded an emergency prototype and then let a competitor steal the contract
  - Company pivoted into a different tech stack overnight
  - Google rewrote our code in a weekend and kicked us out of Android 
  - Owner wouldn't install health benefits (+$5K) but hired his daughter for the summer for busywork
  - Company abandoned the market and went into Facebook games
Now hopefully none of these scenarios will ever happen here. Right? Glad to hear it."
Post reply on HN