Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I failed a Twitter interview

qandwhat.apps.runkite.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–86 of 86 posts

Re: I failed a Twitter interview

#81

Post by brent_noorda »

noelwelsh wrote: post #5

Twitter failed you with that interview. Unless the job actually does involve performing computational parlour tricks.

Agreed. Instead of "I Failed a Twitter Interview" you could have just as well called this "Twitter Failed an Interview with Me."

There's no telling why Twitter didn't make the job offer, but it's probably not because you didn't get the optimal solution to this one particular problem. More likely, Justin just didn't feel that chemistry that made him fall in love with you. Had he felt that immediate bond, he would have unconsciously overlooked any number of sub-optimal answers.

Maybe he didn't like the way you pronounced "max'm'm". More likely, and I'll put money on this, he was in the middle of doing something he thought was important when he was pulled out of it at the last minute to do an interview that some idiot forgot to remind him about, and for a position he doesn't think really needs to be filled, and in any case doing this stupid interview pales in comparison to the task he just got pulled out of, and so he was already in a funk, at which point it wouldn't matter how you answered because Justin was just plain in a rotten mood.

Re: I failed a Twitter interview

#82

Post by nick_ok »

Camillo wrote: post #78
nick_ok wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the word you are looking for is insight problem. Insight problems are problems in which people unable accurately predict their progress. As in if you asked someone to continually report their progress on a problem as they attempted to solve it they would say something like, "0% 0% 0% oh I'finished". Insight problem solving is a topic of significant interest in cognitive science right now and most recently it was foun…

How much current? Do you think it would be doable to make a "thinking hat" to wear at job interviews?

This all came to light in 2011 so pretty recent. Also not only may it be possible, but the term 'thinking cap' has already been used to refer this very invention, namely transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). If you are interested check out this article, http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna... However I would not get your hopes to high up. It is unlikely that prolonged exposure would be particularly healthy and i imagine you would get diminishing returns.

Re: I failed a Twitter interview

#83

Post by huhtenberg »

JanezStupar wrote: post #79
huhtenberg wrote: post #22

> The next day I showed this question to my TA, who's a PhD student in theoretical computer science. After 40 minutes he was also stuck with nothing. That just doesn't speak well of this particular PhD. The one-pass solution is rather obvious. I hate puzzle-based interviews with passion, but this is actually a very reasonable question and it does help to tell apart people with "theoretical" computer science skills fr…

While I do not think that the problem is hard in a sense that if you came to me and wanted it solved for you I couldn't do it. I do think that it is a horrible interview question. I fail to see why one would ask this kind of question and what one would take away from the answer. How does being able to solve problem like this help make Jack Dorsey richer and more respected? How does it help Twitter users have a better…

It's a test question, duh. You struggle with it - you clearly lack field experience. It doesn't make you an idiot, it doesn't disqualify you as a programmer, it merely tests whether you have a particular basic skill or not.

Re: I failed a Twitter interview

#85

Post by smsm42 »

etler wrote: post #75
smsm42 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have hard time imagining what position, at least if we're talking about software engineering, would require solving abstract toy problems in a timeframe of less than an hour without a chance to ever go back and improve your solution. I'd say it's "did you see this problem before" kind of question. Which means Twitter probably lost a capable and smart hire because he couldn't quickly give a perfect answer to useless…

Twitter interview puzzle creator?

You can take months to create puzzles, there's no pressure here.
Post reply on HN