Exactly, it would have been fair game to ask why I used a window function instead of an aggregate function + subquery joined back onto the main result set. Or, to ask if I could rewrite the query another way which would be more efficient.
However, the interviewer didn't simply insist the query does not do what was asked (when it did indeed return the correct results).
Instead, the interviewer actually insisted it was an invalid query which would not run at all.
In this case it sounds like a bad interview and that they missed a good opportunity for discussion!
Re:Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer
by socialist_coder on Monday August 05, 2019 @11:53PM
(#20621982)
From their perspective, they have hundreds of candidates and need to quickly filter a bunch out. So, having low-technical knowledge recruiters ask questions and look for a standard set of answers is the way they do it. There is no room for technical discussion during this phase, no room for nuance.
I'm not saying this is a good process or that it's fair, but it is the reality right now. You still get OK results and it's far faster and cheaper.
I’d already passed the recruiter screen and another phone interview. This was the technical interview with the manager of the group.
Re:Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer
by socialist_coder on Tuesday August 06, 2019 @09:04AM
(#20624744)
oh wow, damn. that is pretty sad.
You're exactly right wrt interviewing. I was talking in general and not in the context of an interview.
If you are interviewing someone and they solve the problem you ask, and then you don't give them some sort of guidance or constraints to meet your "correct" guidelines, then you aren't doing a good and fair interview.
That's not a good reason to reject a candidate, even if there might be other good reasons in this case.