Hacking a Google Interview - MIT's guide to Google interviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Hacking a Google Interview - MIT's guide to Google interviews

#41

Post by j_baker » Wed, Aug 26, 2009, 11:44 AM UTC

kraemate wrote: post #5

Are there any MIT students who would not know these things? Big-O notation etc?

Just because you graduated from MIT doesn't mean that you're smart. I find that school is usually about how much you can cram in your head rather than how much you actually know. Most students can parrot back that a quicksort is an O(n log n) algorithm, but fewer will actually be able to explain why or what that even means.

Re: Hacking a Google Interview - MIT's guide to Google interviews

#42

Post by jcl » Wed, Aug 26, 2009, 2:06 PM UTC

herf wrote: post #40

Most companies blacklist interview questions that are highly publicized. Maybe companies should also ask if you've read questions online before an interview begins. :)

That would be an interesting meta-question... If you admit to studying interview questions, the interviewer could interpret it as being intellectually curious, practical, or honest. On the other hand, they could interpret it as being insecure, weaselly, or simply unevaluable.

Re: Hacking a Google Interview - MIT's guide to Google interviews

#43

Post by johnm » Wed, Aug 26, 2009, 2:50 PM UTC

geezer wrote: post #27

I have actually tried but could not find any scientific evidence that these type of technical interviews actually result in the best hiring decisions.

Indeed. These types of interviews are much more about finding people who "think outside the box... just like me!" than about finding people who can do the job.