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Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

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Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

#311

Post by rayiner »

tptacek wrote: post #52
lordnacho wrote: post #13

I'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…

I knew all these answers too, because I was a developer in the 1990s. There is absolutely no purpose to knowing off the top of your head how long an ethernet address is, or even what system call will retrieve an inode (his bickering over stat() "filling in" rather than "returning" was bogus, for what it's worth). The top Google search result for each of these questions has the answer. Knowing these things isn't part…

I don't think these questions are unreasonable as a spam filter. Yeah, they're trivia, but if you had actually worked in that space, I'd be surprised if you didn't know a lot of that trivia just by virtue of exposure.

The rejoinder, of course, is that it's probably misguided to structure your recruiting around a spam filter.

Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

#312

Post by animex »

jackweirdy wrote: post #59
lordnacho wrote: post #13

I'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…

Medical Recruiter: "What are mitochondria?" Applicant Doctor: "They're double membrane-bound organelles found in all eukaryotic organisms, commonly between 0.75 and 3μm in diameter, that generate most of the cell's supply of adenosine triphosphate" Recruiter: "No. They are the powerhouse of the cell".

Yay for Biology 10.

Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

#313

Post by pjungwir »

lordnacho wrote: post #13

I'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…

I was interviewed once by someone who would cut me off after just a sentence or two. He asked a fairly open question like, "Tell me about hash tables." I knew I should have just said, "Lookups are constant-time," but I started off with a description of their behavior instead, and sure enough he cut me off and said, "Lookups are constant-time." Some people are just not very good interviewers, but also some tech people's rules are too iron, with no exceptions, like they can memorize but not think. They say interviews are a two-way communication, and that one certainly was. :-)

Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

#314

Post by tptacek »

rayiner wrote: post #311
tptacek wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew all these answers too, because I was a developer in the 1990s. There is absolutely no purpose to knowing off the top of your head how long an ethernet address is, or even what system call will retrieve an inode (his bickering over stat() "filling in" rather than "returning" was bogus, for what it's worth). The top Google search result for each of these questions has the answer. Knowing these things isn't part…

I don't think these questions are unreasonable as a spam filter. Yeah, they're trivia, but if you had actually worked in that space, I'd be surprised if you didn't know a lot of that trivia just by virtue of exposure. The rejoinder, of course, is that it's probably misguided to structure your recruiting around a spam filter.

The length of an ethernet address is a trivia question. It's a good way to score a board game. Filtering out candidates based on it is lunacy.

Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

#315

Post by noploop »

ysavir wrote: post #305

Hmmm... * A link to his LinkedIn profile * A direct downlink to his resume (well, an HTML file for his LinkedIn page; same purpose) * Talking about how his skillsets are a "rare mix". * A "transcript" showing how he's smarter than the recruiter for a Google DoE position * Taking on a big company in a post bound to go Viral Yeah, this feels less like a blog post, and more like an attempt at a viral cover letter.

This guy has been at it for years. He isn't dumb but he doesn't seem to adapt to the world well.

Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

#316

Post by [deleted] »

ggambetta wrote: post #255
chrismorgan wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But hang on, the primary colours are red, yellow and blue! I know, they told me so in primary school.

Not sure how much you're kidding, but... that's true for a subtractive colour system, where you start with a white sheet of paper (i.e. reflects every wavelength) and subtract colours (filter out wavelengths) by painting over the paper with crayons. For an additive colour system, where you start with a black monitor screen, and you add wavelengths, the primaries are RGB.

[deleted]

Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

#317

Post by spcelzrd »

vthallam wrote: post #238
caoilte wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only way this makes "sense" is if you already have the candidate (or pool of H1-B candidates) you want in mind, but have to prove you opened up the position to the general public first.

I know some companies do this, but this is Google. There's no incentive for them to hire H1-B's if a equally qualified American citizen is available, since they are going to pay equal salary.

They don't have to offer the same salary, just salary in the same range. That range can be pretty wide ($20k+)

Employees on an H1-B visa have drastically less job mobility than US Citizens. This creates a power advantage for the employer.

>but this is Google

Google has, in the past, illegally conspired to prevent other companies from recruiting their employees. This lowers wages and reduces employee mobility. Clearly there's incentive because they have literally broken the law in the past to achieve these results.

Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

#319

Post by wpietri »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #276
lucb1e wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I mean who would know just how long a MAC address is? Uh, my main languages are PHP and Python (high level stuff) and I'm a student (not someone with 10 years of experience) but I knew that. 3 bytes for the vendor block, 3 bytes for the device. > Or what the actual SYN/ACK etc tcp flags are? Yeah the actual bytes, who ever uses that? A MAC address I've seen plenty of times in my life as hex, and I've seen the TCP s…

> I'm a student (not someone with 10 years of experience) but I knew that. 3 bytes for the vendor block, 3 bytes for the device. That is why you know the answer. Come back in 10 years and let us know if you still know it. What you think might be mainstream in a computer science class are rarely used in application. And if they are they can be easily looked up. I used to know the exact effective distance of a CATV cab…

> Come back in 10 years and let us know if you still know it.

I've never taken a CS class, and I still know it. I've just stared at enough packet dumps and debugged enough issues that it happens to stick.

I think it's a stupid question to ask as a screener, as it tests familiarity with trivia. It's the kind of thing I'd be happy to see that somebody knew, but it's never something I'd downcheck them for not knowing. It could just mean, as in your case, that there deep knowledge is somewhere else.

Re: Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

#320

Post by vmasto »

DannyBee wrote: post #152

FWIW: As a director of engineering for Google, who interviews other directors of engineering for Google, none of these are on or related to the "director of engineering" interview guidelines or sheets. These are bog standard SWE-SRE questions (particularly, SRE) at some companies, so my guess is he was really being evaluated for a normal SWE-SRE position. IE maybe he applied to a position labeled director of engineer…

I would 100% back you up in my mind had it not been for the "Why Quicksort is the best sorting method?" question.

I hope you'll agree that there is no way a correct answer would ever validate this question.

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