Re:Ask HN: Would you pass an interview for your current posi...
by HeyLaughingBoy on Thursday January 06, 2022 @04:34PM
(#29830560)
This is why the last large organization I worked (at least my group!) settled on pair exercises.
We had a known problem set that all candidates had to work and this consistency kept HR happy (although it was an uphill battle to convince HR that it wasn't a "test"). The problem was sized so it would be just barely possible to complete the entire thing in 45 minutes. In fact, I think in all the years we did it, only two people every completed the exercise, and one of those we suspect knew about it ahead of time.
However, the problem wasn't a blind "do this on a whiteboard" exercise. We didn't really care whether or not they finished: rather we wanted to see the process they took, the clarifying questions they asked, where they got stuck, how they asked for help, etc.
The candidate could choose to work in complete silence, or work with the interviewer as a team exercise, or a mix of both. The point of the exercise was to see if they could (a) program their way out of a wet paper bag and (b) do so in a way that didn't completely alienate the people they would have to work with. Leetcode? Obscure algorithms? We couldn't care less.
We had a known problem set that all candidates had to work and this consistency kept HR happy (although it was an uphill battle to convince HR that it wasn't a "test"). The problem was sized so it would be just barely possible to complete the entire thing in 45 minutes. In fact, I think in all the years we did it, only two people every completed the exercise, and one of those we suspect knew about it ahead of time.
However, the problem wasn't a blind "do this on a whiteboard" exercise. We didn't really care whether or not they finished: rather we wanted to see the process they took, the clarifying questions they asked, where they got stuck, how they asked for help, etc.
The candidate could choose to work in complete silence, or work with the interviewer as a team exercise, or a mix of both. The point of the exercise was to see if they could (a) program their way out of a wet paper bag and (b) do so in a way that didn't completely alienate the people they would have to work with. Leetcode? Obscure algorithms? We couldn't care less.
It was surprisingly effective.