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Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

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Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#351

Post by thomasahle »

flukus wrote: post #296
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost unbelievable - and perhaps the perspective of people who interview for one of these in-demand companies can offer the better perspective on why go to these lengths . I work for one of the big 5 in demand software companies to work for - originally I would do a live-programming question on Coderpad as part of a first round pass with candidates. I used a pretty basic question as sort of a fizzbuzz - build a…

Did you call it fizzbuzz or pascals triangle and is that how they were able to google it? If you change the parameters to ducky-fuzz (the drinking game variant) and describe the requirements they shouldn't be able to google an answer, at least not a 100% one.

Unless people already know the problem and its original name.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#352

Post by avarun »

nilkn wrote: post #346
frakkingcylons wrote: post #242

I went through Amazon's two online tests in October 2016 while interviewing for a full-time position. I took the first test just like the OP, the logical reasoning part seemed kind of irrelevant and a waste of time for me. That was nothing compared to the second online test. The environment of the second test was like a scenario out of Black Mirror. Not only did they want to have the webcam and microphone on the enti…

I do understand why Amazon might do this, but I just can't get onboard with this. Being treated like a cheater upfront is just not how I want to start my relationship with a potential employer. Even when I was in college my university (Rice) had an honor code which meant, among other things: (1) professors didn't have to be present in-class during exams, and in fact they were encouraged to leave; (2) professors could…

Vanderbilt does the same, and it works well, especially the whole Honor Council concept.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#353

Post by avarun »

randomuser9227 wrote: post #39

Other companies aren't so draconian, and don't tend to treat potential talent so poorly. https://careers.mozilla.org/university/

It's been a month, haven't heard anything, and ended up having to accept a different offer, so everywhere has their own problems.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#354

Post by discordianfish »

wyclif wrote: post #337
Aeolun wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they should just conduct fizzbuzz then?

I think the point is that even if employers do conduct fizzbuzz, some candidates use someone else's answer.

Some do and you will see this at on site. So how big is the harm really?

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#355

Post by haylem »

kafkaesq wrote: post #18

The following information will be collected during the duration of the exam: Your microphone Your webcam Your physical location Your head movements Your eye movements Your mouth movements Creepy as all get-out. By all means, lets have more leaks like this.

Doesn't really fade me. I mean, it's just for the duration of the exam. Install on a throwaway laptop, do your interview, be done with it.

It's not so much the recording of these metrics that I'd be worried about, but them storing it to build profiles. Different story.

These particular metrics are now quite common for online exam systems.

Mind you, these are valid concerns, and anyone should feel free to reject them. But on the other hand it's nice to have a remote option (for certifications, exams, interviews...) and at the same time a cheat-prevention system.

You'd be creeped out by the stories I have of freelancers or even consulting companies having some "star" employees doing interviews and then other employees showing up at work instead (remotely or even physically). Once you've been burned by stuff like that, you understand they take precautions.

In OPs position, I'd ask for the storage and retention terms and conditions though.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#356

Post by palunon »

ryandrake wrote: post #316
vmarsy wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Justifying this as "just to make sure people aren't cheating" is like justifying the police putting a camera in everyone's living room "just to make sure people aren't criminals" or putting a GPS collar on your spouse "just to make sure she's not having an affair". Totally unacceptable. While you might have good reason to get offended and find this to be a big privacy invasion, probably like 90% of people here, the…

OK, then we'll turn the camera and GPS on only once in a while, when we have a good reason to make sure things are kosher.

Depends. If they warn you long before turning on the camera, you decide the exact moment when the camera is turned on, and how it is positioned, and you only have to turn it on once while taking a test, would it be so bad ? Just put your laptop facing a wall, and the personal information you give is your face (which your prospective employer would see at some point anyway) and the color of your walls (big deal !).

It is an invasion of privacy. Is it an unacceptable invasion of privacy for the duration of an interview/test ?

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#357

Post by inimino »

donatj wrote: post #173
riazrizvi wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a bit silly to get so worked up about this. The test is simply to gauge programming skill in an online test, and they want to check you are not cheating. Though I think they could have worded it without freaking people out: "You are going to be video monitored during the test".

There is no cheating in programming. This is absurd.

There is cheating in online testing, however.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#358

Post by wheelerwj »

wyclif wrote: post #337
Aeolun wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they should just conduct fizzbuzz then?

I think the point is that even if employers do conduct fizzbuzz, some candidates use someone else's answer.

those are the people you should hire. why would you pay to reinvent the wheel when you really need someone to invent better IAM controls?

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#360

Post by tokenizerrr »

hermitdev wrote: post #66
morganvachon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a practical sense, it's not much different from a math instructor having you clear the memory on your graphing calculator before an exam; it's an anti-cheating measure and given that this is an online assessment, it almost makes sense. However, from a philosophical point of view, it's Draconian and unnerving. What assurance does the interviewee have that Amazon isn't storing and using all this telemetry? Amazon is…

> "it's not much different from a math instructor having you clear the memory on your graphing calculator before an exam" This sort of behavior by teachers is exactly what got me to write my first serious z80 assembly program to mimic all of the menus on the TI-83 circa 1996. Teachers had already caught on to the fact that there were programs that would display the "Mem Cleared" message on the calculators, so mandate…

On the TI-84 (not sure about earlier models) you could archive programs which made them stick around past a memory wipe.
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