Re:Ask HN: Can engineers from Google or Facebook solve white...
by jasondclinton on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @08:53AM
(#17757420)
I have worked at Google for 7 years. I am a SWE and mostly agree with the parent.
I am, I think objectively, a pretty good software engineer and often couldn't solve my peers interview questions in the time allotted. I try to do my part by conducting interviews with questions that I think demonstrate the ability to actually code and think abstractly as opposed to regurgitating some random algorithm that has been memorized. I ask a simple CS 100-200 level, one-word-answer question about an algorithm and then move on to a coding question.
Despite the difficulty of some of the questions that others ask, often the interviewer wants the interviewee to pass and so will throw a hint. It's important to keep commicating because that is how those hints will be delivered.
Ironically, I never interviewed because I came in from an acquisition. Yes, I was very lucky.
I am, I think objectively, a pretty good software engineer and often couldn't solve my peers interview questions in the time allotted. I try to do my part by conducting interviews with questions that I think demonstrate the ability to actually code and think abstractly as opposed to regurgitating some random algorithm that has been memorized. I ask a simple CS 100-200 level, one-word-answer question about an algorithm and then move on to a coding question.
Despite the difficulty of some of the questions that others ask, often the interviewer wants the interviewee to pass and so will throw a hint. It's important to keep commicating because that is how those hints will be delivered.
Ironically, I never interviewed because I came in from an acquisition. Yes, I was very lucky.