Boy do I feel for that candidate. As a manager, while this is not the kind of question I'd ever ask, if I saw a candidate work through a problem like this I'd take it as a strong signal for a possible hire. Ghosting is a dick move period, but especially after a performance like that. I would like a follow-up discussion probing how open/accepting they'd be to skilling-up in their weaker areas, how they go about asking for help, try to suss out if they're prone to getting stuck in "ruts". But if I didn't see any red flags my vote would've been yes.
The FizzBuzz that did not get me the job
221–230 of 460 posts
Re: The FizzBuzz that did not get me the job
#222Am I crazy or is “conversion to base 15” very much a numeric method/operation?
Like sure the API itself may have string input/output, but under the hood there’s no way it’s not doing integer divisions and modulos.
Re: The FizzBuzz that did not get me the job
#223Re: The FizzBuzz that did not get me the job
#224What a genuinely terrible interview. Seems like a great way to learn absolutely nothing about the candidate. I would have walked out half way through. These types of questions are very telling of an organization which is extremely insecure in its own abilities. For anyone who is a somewhat experienced programmer it is not hard to tell if someone else knows what he is talking about. You do not need to waste 45 minutes…
This rule alone would make me walk out: "New rules will be revealed one by one. The candidate should note them as there won’t be shown again" This feels more like a Squid Game parody than an interview. I interview people from all walks of life. I would definitely not have hired some of the best engineers I worked with if I was trying to be too clever and quirky when giving out requirements.
I think this one is pretty outrageous:
> Mutating array operations are forbidden. Arrays cannot have content appended or removed after initialization.
In a language like C, one could interpret this rule as making arrays containing anything other than 0 or a fixed-length list of expression be forbidden. And, in any case, who comes up with what are essentially style rules that are the same regardless of language?
Re: The FizzBuzz that did not get me the job
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
are you sure it was the answer for the first question? i went through a fast paced interview recently. i was told that it would be fast paced and the interviewer did cut me off when i gave an answer like that for a different question, but i can't imagine that that would be the reason to reject me. (i didn't know all the answers so it was fair in my case)
Yes, they explicitly mentioned it in the rejection mail. I quote: "the answers regarding terraform vs Ansible were overcomplicated". Obviously I'm biased towards myself, but I've been an interviewer as well and if someone develops on their own an answer like I did, they would pass the interview with flying colors, because they would have shown me that they understand what's behind the thing. Again, it's my side of th…
nah, it's pretty clear, they shared their side of the story in what you quoted. damn, that's got to hurt. it feels like failing a test in school because the teacher is pedantic, not because the answer is wrong. maybe they were looking for an excuse but at least you are not left guessing otherwise. that's the only thing i can think of that would be worse.
Re: The FizzBuzz that did not get me the job
#226I will go against the grain and say I do not consider OPs fizzbuzz solution to score particular well on readability or maintainability. And these were the only two stated core requirements. The solution is clever and demonstrates solid knowledge of TS. However, in my experience getting too clever with the type system is not always a good idea for ordinary application code maintained by a team of average TS developers…
This is also one of those things that can be quite tricky to modify down the line when you need to add a new feature or whatnot. This problem is of course very artificial and it doesn't sound like the interview was particularly well done, but I can kind of see what they were trying to do with "keep code maintainable as it evolves". And even if you are a TS-wizard with a Ph.D. in typing: is it really worth all the cognitive overhead?
Re: The FizzBuzz that did not get me the job
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
73k as a junior? (your first software position) that sounds like a major exception. the average for juniors in germany is 50k or below.
I have a PhD, maybe that's the difference. I asked for 65k but they refused and gave me 73k
ah, yes, that's probably it. also typical german. don't pay for the role, but for the formal qualification.
Re: The FizzBuzz that did not get me the job
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
In general, any made up problem (i.e., with no real utility) is just a puzzle and I would prefer to walk out unless I do need the/a job. What a pity when interviewers can't even think of a real world problem for an interview. Most interviewers are like that. No wonder, the industry has the candidates solve various coding problems, and once hired, all the candidates end up dealing with is company politics or other slo…
There’s a spectrum of reasonableness with technical interview questions—the process described in this post is unreasonable, but I think plain old fizzbuzz is about as reasonable as it gets. It’s actually pretty “real world” if the candidate will be writing code in their job. It’s not a trick question nor does it require memorization or study to prepare. You’re not being given 20 minutes to solve something that requir…
I agree about vanilla FizzBuzz. It's like a 'hello, world' of coding. My comment is about the several other rules brought in.
Re: The FizzBuzz that did not get me the job
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
In general, any made up problem (i.e., with no real utility) is just a puzzle and I would prefer to walk out unless I do need the/a job. What a pity when interviewers can't even think of a real world problem for an interview. Most interviewers are like that. No wonder, the industry has the candidates solve various coding problems, and once hired, all the candidates end up dealing with is company politics or other slo…
The point of fizzbuzz is to prove you can program. There are a few ways to solve the problem but like real world all are not elegant and so you have to show how you handle such problems. Yet you can do the whole thing in less than an hour while real worle problems are expected to take a week or more. there is no point in all the additions the article had the first example is enough to show you are not lieing about yo…
I agree about vanilla FizzBuzz. It's like a 'hello, world' of coding. My comment is about the several other rules brought in. I still do not see the rules added as a reflection of a real world problem.
When I interview, I only give real world problems that can be solved within an interview setting. (PS: I won't disclose the interview problems here on open Internet.)
Re: The FizzBuzz that did not get me the job
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
At work, would you rather have a boss that makes you implement dumb ideas? Or would you prefer a boss who recognises that your idea is better, then rewards you for it? You are interviewing them too. I would also have hired the candidate.
I probably wouldn't have hired the candidate, at least for the position as stated. My reasoning is that the company advertised a position for a senior engineer with 4 years experience. Leaving aside title inflation and whether someone with 4 years experience is actually a senior engineer, and leaving aside the really dumb test, that position requires communication skills, common sense, maturity, and just generally kn…
If you want to assess communication skills, common sense, maturity, just generally knowing what's going on, or any other senior engineering quality, I advise you steer hard away from FizzBuzz.
FizzBuzz is the mind-killer.