I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#241

Post by brhsagain » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:43 PM UTC

jimmaswell wrote: post #231

brhsagain wrote: post #228

The whole game of studying is predicting what's going to be on the test, rather than nobly mastering the material in general and then doing well on the test by applying your knowledge. Anyone saying this is cheating either did badly in school, spent impossibly exorbitant amounts of time on school, or is being a hypocrite. Also, if the article hadn't revealed the interview question, I would've assumed it was like, wri…

> nobly mastering the material in general and then doing well on the test This is what I almost always did, because I was there to learn and wanted to better myself and actually know the material. Sometimes I'd know some nonsense was on the test like memorizing an arbitrary complicated formula but that was the exception. Always tended to do well too.

Could be different era/circumstances, but when I was in school this would've been impossible. There was just way too much material to cover. If someone from my high school had claimed they aced all their classes by actually learning the shit out of every subject, I would've been like, either you have a 200 IQ, or you have more hours in the day than me, or you're actually doing some version of this: http://paulgraham.com/lesson.html

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#242

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:43 PM UTC

LanceH wrote: post #224

lrvick wrote: post #134

One time a company I interviewed with asked me obscure algorithm questions about playing card shuffling. As a former professional magician I knew the optimal answers instantly and could jot them down straight away. They had allocated an hour for answers I wrote in a few minutes. I could have told them I had a massively unfair advantage, but I did not bother. They were visibly impressed and told me I was moving on to…

I answered one of those mind benders nearly immediately in an interview. I figured out the trick as they were telling it basically. They asked me if I had heard it before. I hadn't. A final interview with the CEO and he asked if I had heard it before and I said I hadn't. I later realized based on how they were asking if I had heard it before, they thought I was lying. The question: You get on a ski lift going up. It'…

[deleted]

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#243

Post by naet » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:43 PM UTC

LanceH wrote: post #224

lrvick wrote: post #134

One time a company I interviewed with asked me obscure algorithm questions about playing card shuffling. As a former professional magician I knew the optimal answers instantly and could jot them down straight away. They had allocated an hour for answers I wrote in a few minutes. I could have told them I had a massively unfair advantage, but I did not bother. They were visibly impressed and told me I was moving on to…

I answered one of those mind benders nearly immediately in an interview. I figured out the trick as they were telling it basically. They asked me if I had heard it before. I hadn't. A final interview with the CEO and he asked if I had heard it before and I said I hadn't. I later realized based on how they were asking if I had heard it before, they thought I was lying. The question: You get on a ski lift going up. It'…

Do you pass them all?

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#244

Post by tzs » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:45 PM UTC

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #232

tzs wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be the difficulty of actually getting it right (if by "right" we mean that all 52! permutations are equally likely. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say the ease of not getting it right. Something like this: 10 pick a number from 1 to 52 20 if not already printed it 30 print it 40 if we have printed 52 numbers 50 halt 60 goto 10 works, but could take arbitrarily long time. Most people prefer bounded run tim…

So what happens in your code if you just change the line j = random(0,51) to j = random(i,51) ?

That is indeed the simplest fix. It is called the Fisher-Yates shuffle [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher%E2%80%93Yates_shuffle#T...

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#245

Post by zeroonetwothree » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:45 PM UTC

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #78

When I did my geography exam at 16 I'd given up with normal revision, so I spent the morning reading about one particular extremely obscure topic - something like the natural resources of Nigeria - because it was on the back of the weekly installment encyclopedia my parents were buying for me. It hadn't been mentioned in class. It hadn't even been mentioned as a possibility. But it came up anyway. I wrote a nice litt…

There is a whole book with this as the premise: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_%26_A_(novel)

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#246

Post by dorkwood » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:45 PM UTC

LanceH wrote: post #224

lrvick wrote: post #134

One time a company I interviewed with asked me obscure algorithm questions about playing card shuffling. As a former professional magician I knew the optimal answers instantly and could jot them down straight away. They had allocated an hour for answers I wrote in a few minutes. I could have told them I had a massively unfair advantage, but I did not bother. They were visibly impressed and told me I was moving on to…

I answered one of those mind benders nearly immediately in an interview. I figured out the trick as they were telling it basically. They asked me if I had heard it before. I hadn't. A final interview with the CEO and he asked if I had heard it before and I said I hadn't. I later realized based on how they were asking if I had heard it before, they thought I was lying. The question: You get on a ski lift going up. It'…

Is the answer zero chairs, since as far as we know there is only one chair on this lift?

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#247

Post by dekhn » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:45 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #210

dekhn wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you would have lost me (principal engineer) with those questions.

Really? You don't like to socialize with peers, with puzzles or tricky problems? Enough to make you refuse to join a company? Discussion has gone off the rails here. Maybe I didn't make it clear - the puzzles were during casual conversation at lunch. Rebutting something I didn't say, is not fair.

Asking puzzle questions during lunch interview is absolutely not just socialization. In fact I remember as a kid my dad explaining how lunch interviews are culture tests and how to succeed them- but it's very unpleasant for me. Best lunch "interview" I ever had was at Noname at Google some 15 years ago, it was just a relaxed conversation where we discussed the fact that Google's chefs made and served consomme.

I absolutely don't like solving puzzles with other people. On the other hand, I do enjoy writing code on my own, solving problems (not puzzles) and then sharing the results in a readable way with others.

I do like to socialize with peers, but never playing games (I prefer to play games on the computer against NPCs).

THe reason I don't like this is there are people who've asked me ludicrous puzzle questions before and they are proxies for 'people I wouldn't want to work with'.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#248

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:46 PM UTC

LanceH wrote: post #224

lrvick wrote: post #134

One time a company I interviewed with asked me obscure algorithm questions about playing card shuffling. As a former professional magician I knew the optimal answers instantly and could jot them down straight away. They had allocated an hour for answers I wrote in a few minutes. I could have told them I had a massively unfair advantage, but I did not bother. They were visibly impressed and told me I was moving on to…

I answered one of those mind benders nearly immediately in an interview. I figured out the trick as they were telling it basically. They asked me if I had heard it before. I hadn't. A final interview with the CEO and he asked if I had heard it before and I said I hadn't. I later realized based on how they were asking if I had heard it before, they thought I was lying. The question: You get on a ski lift going up. It'…

[deleted]

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#249

Post by javajosh » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:46 PM UTC

If this is cheating, so is studying for the interview by reviewing hundreds of similar questions. The difference is in degree, not kind.

BTW you probably earned extra points for not naming the Gaussian sum you used, because that's pretentious.

Re: I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019)

#250

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jun 05, 2022, 2:46 PM UTC

lrvick wrote: post #134

One time a company I interviewed with asked me obscure algorithm questions about playing card shuffling. As a former professional magician I knew the optimal answers instantly and could jot them down straight away. They had allocated an hour for answers I wrote in a few minutes. I could have told them I had a massively unfair advantage, but I did not bother. They were visibly impressed and told me I was moving on to…

[deleted]