I was told (and this was reflected in the interview prep materials they provided) that bringing my own IDE and screen-sharing was the norm, although they would be prepared with a collaborative online editor as backup. It would be a collaborative session where the interviewer would work through the problem with me (obviously with myself in the driver's seat).
I was reasonably excited. Finally, a tech firm that didn't cargo-cult leetcode hazing.
And then came the interview.
I leave it to the reader to guess at the nature of the problem (hint: it starts with 'l'). The interviewer also seemed entirely unprepared and surprised that I was prepared with my own IDE. They were also unwilling to collaborate, and unwilling to accept how I approached solving the problem (I like to write experimental pseudo-code out first as I think through things, especially when in an environment where drawing things out isn't easy. I let them know that was what I was doing and explained my thought process as I wrote it, and yet they kept interrupting and explaining that I could clean that code up... code that was not meant to be "final" or "complete"...)
It was just a terrible experience from beginning to end. From the recruiter presenting an interview plan that was clearly not in line with reality, to the interviewer being unprepared for what their own interview prep materials described (BYOIDE!), to the interviewer's unprofessional and very unhelpful demeanor (if day-to-day engineering at Stripe involves being berated at every step as you prototype a solution to solve a leetcode problem before preparing to write the actual solution...well, maybe they should fix that)
Wow. Similar thing happened to me with Stripe. It was a system design interview. I had already seen a very similar problem and aced it with Amazon. This person just kept saying "we don't have time for this, we need to get through this whole system" - wouldn't even let me finish my thought. It was arbitrary whether they wanted me to dive into a section of the system more or if I was boring them (and they did not seem excited/engaged to present this interview) and taking too long explaining my decision.
Stripe was the only company I didn't pass (and I passed multiple FAANG interviews) and it was the only company who told me twice that the role I was applying for either was filled or "shifted priorities" and they would scramble to find me another role with another hiring manager. And I am certain it was because of this one system design interview that we just did not click on.
Anyways there was a tooling communication problem. Clearly Facebook was new to the coderpad thing, they should have come out and said so, they should have communicated that you won't be able to execute, etc.
After experimenting with BYOIDE, we've stuck with online code style platforms (monotype fonts, no language-based Word-style auto-correct). This helps people focus on the problem, not the code itself, in my experience.
I’m not sure I follow here. For me, programming is an iterative process: write a small chunk, test it out, write the next bit, and so on. Not being able to execute code seems like it would make that process harder, and force interviewee to essentially come up with the code “fully formed” all at once, which is hardly a useful or realistic skill.
I guess it's yours hiring process, so whatever, but you could probably be filtering out people with very good and desirable programming habits.
I've also had some serious problems with (senior) coworkers who "assert their code works" when it's riddled with bugs or flat out doesn't work, so maybe it's my trauma refected here
> I hope I’m never asked to write executable code in it because as an editor, it’s terrible.
Well, I typically offer coderpad for anyone who would rather not share their screen.
Not my call; it’s an org-wide setting (we use coderpad with SSO that lets the company control some of the settings).
If someone suggested using their own IDE and screen sharing instead, I would 100% let them do it.
> Otherwise you might as well use Google docs. Coderpad has other useful features like syntax highlight, autocomplete (I think?), and the private interviewer notepad with timestamps.
I always say that isn't the case at the top of my interviews, because otherwise it's a handicap for people interviewing remote.
I hope Stripe takes a deep look into how their employees reach out to people and trace down every hiring related emails.
Patrick - I would start a task force for this internally and hold people accountable for being assholes. No matter how your people are busy, I rank my own time higher and wasting it pisses me off to no end.
Now that other anecdotes are coming out of the woodwork, it seems maybe it may not be an exception but a broken internal process which needs fixing. That said, we don’t know the full picture and whether the incidence is within range or outside the range for their industry. That’s not yo say there shouldn’t be improvement. The industry and the company may very well benefit from a change in practices.