That time when I failed the Microsoft interview • Hacker News Board

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#321

Post by keeda » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 10:48 PM UTC

LoganDark wrote: post #308

keeda wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Windows feels so basic and primitive compared to other operating systems. That's interesting, the complaints I hear most often are about bloat and lag. I'm on Mac as a daily driver but whenever I use Windows I don't find much lacking, just maybe it's more optimized for different workflows. Do you mean in terms of features, or polish, or capability?

I have some recent experience with this, as I used a couple Windows computers as daily drivers for a few years after my Intel MacBook broke, before switching back to Mac (via Apple Silicon) a couple years ago. I still use my Windows desktop for gaming and cross platform testing, since I can't use Linux yet due to the Nvidia GPU. I think Windows has been getting more featureful lately, like the ability to link your ph…

Thanks for the super-detailed comment! I use Windows frequently, but just don't use it "deeply" enough to encounter these issues -- almost like a thin client -- so it's helpful to understand what it is like to use it in "anger."

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#322

Post by claw-el » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #117

JSR_FDED wrote: post #101

A friend told me about his AWS interview experience. It was a case study describing a potential client, their needs, limitations, etc - trying to be “realistic”. In the end it came down to either pressuring the client to embark on a complex cloud transition in time for a major sports event (that was a make or break event for the customer) or, as my friend recommended, start with a PoC but do the risky transition afte…

> He didn’t get the job because even though the technical attributes were all good, he should have pressured the customer. I'd say he didn't get the job because they would have asked him to pressure customers day in day out, he would refuse, never get promoted and be otherwise miserable in an aggressive culture. IMHO he shouldn't change his answer to please the interviewer, the process is working as intended and I'd…

> I'd say he didn't get the job because they would have asked him to pressure customers day in day out, he would refuse, never get promoted and be otherwise miserable in an aggressive culture.

But how do you differentiate between if it is just this one interviewer or if it is the team or the whole company? I had interviewed at places that my friend referred me to, and after the fact, my friend told me it is just this one interviewer with their weird preference that screwed the whole process…

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#323

Post by benrutter » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 7:35 AM UTC

moron4hire wrote: post #210

xeromal wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's because most of us don't do CS once we graduate. We build APIs and websites which don't involve CS at all. It barely involves engineering. lol. No one uses binary trees or some manual form of serialization. They use "superlib.search(arr)" or (seriliazer.parse(thingy)" and that's about it. No one cares about what it does. They just know it does it faster than something they could write. The only places th…

I'm not some Google/Microsoft/whatever engineer who's been working on highly scalable, highly available systems. I've mostly worked in consulting on small projects. I have never not had problems with the defaults on any of those sorts of libraries. I've almost always had to roll my own graph manipulation and heavily customize any serialization system I've used. And when I do so, because I've gotten good at doing it (…

> In general, I don't think you can argue definitively on the uselessness of a piece of knowledge from a standpoint of ignorance of that knowledge.

I agree, I think those things are definitely worthwhile learning. But I don't think that it follows we should test for them in interviews.

It sounds like you've done some pretty impressive work around graph algorithms, but if a job doesn't need you to do this, testing for it is a little silly. (If it's a criteria you're explicitly hiring for, I think that's clearly different)

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#324

Post by achenet » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

tmtvl wrote: post #265

achenet wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, strongly agree with this. The goal when interviewing is not "get the job", it's "am I a good fit for this role". If the company is some weird dysfunctional hierarchy run by socio-paths, I'll be happier elsewhere. Or to put things in a much more pretentious manner - If you're too stupid to appreciate my genius, you don't deserve to work with me :)

Unfortunately most people have a problem with starvation and homelessness, you'd almost swear they're allergic to those things.

that's true, being lucky enough to have one's basic food and shelter needs covered does really help one refuse employments that might be unpleasant, and it's very true that many people are not lucky enough to have that freedom and may end up having to put up with difficult working environments.