Re:Caltech's CS interview prep course
by thaumasiotes on Sunday February 27, 2022 @06:56PM
(#30494219)
> But they're offering this course, and that makes me think that no, the worst student from these schools in the US, at least cannot nail any algorithm interview with minimal prep!
My take on this is that the problem is misaligned expectations. I failed Google's algorithmic interview round twice under the assumption that when the interviewer asked me a question, the point was to see if I could come up with the answer.
But that isn't true. The interview questions are chosen with the expectation that candidates cannot come up with the answer themselves. Instead, the point is for the candidate to cold-read the answer from the interviewer.
When a test -- or a computer -- asks you how to do something, it won't care or even realize that you spent ten minutes thinking about the problem before starting to write a solution down. But an interviewer will fail you for doing that.
That insight was enough to pass the interview round. And it also suggests that a course in "how to pass an interview" should boost CalTech grads' passing rates to nearly 100%, because all they need is to be informed of the "proper" technique.
My take on this is that the problem is misaligned expectations. I failed Google's algorithmic interview round twice under the assumption that when the interviewer asked me a question, the point was to see if I could come up with the answer.
But that isn't true. The interview questions are chosen with the expectation that candidates cannot come up with the answer themselves. Instead, the point is for the candidate to cold-read the answer from the interviewer.
When a test -- or a computer -- asks you how to do something, it won't care or even realize that you spent ten minutes thinking about the problem before starting to write a solution down. But an interviewer will fail you for doing that.
That insight was enough to pass the interview round. And it also suggests that a course in "how to pass an interview" should boost CalTech grads' passing rates to nearly 100%, because all they need is to be informed of the "proper" technique.