from Hacker News

Ask HN: Tech interviews gone crazy

by sathley on 3/21/17, 6:43 PM with 5 comments

I've given a handful of tech interview in the last few weeks. The interviewers either ask hard DP problems or questions with named algorithms as solutions. I get some of them absolutely correct and showed good approached to the others. I've still got all rejections. I am an Indian wrapping up my Masters in CS in the US with 4 years of prior experience. Is there a pattern or fact that I am missing?

  • by madamelic on 3/21/17, 6:55 PM

    Sounds like you need to pick companies better or brush up on these questions.

    https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards

  • by ajeet_dhaliwal on 3/24/17, 10:32 AM

    This may not be too helpful right now but if you have a genuine enjoyment and love of programming and software you will probably be ok in the end. I have noticed recently a trend that I last saw in 1999/2000/2001 (when I was headed to first year university in 2001) where huge numbers of people look to be interested in entering the field, there's the rise of bootcamps for example, but the reasons are not necessarily 'wholesome' let's say and possibly because the job situation in other industries is getting worse. If people are only doing this for the money they will fizzle out, as did happen after 2001/2002, you've got to love this stuff genuinely to keep going and find your place. I remember in that era that the University of Toronto built a new computer science and information technology building (Bahen Center) because of the huge influx of CS undergrads, however soon after it was built, there were far fewer candidates:-)

    My original 'passion' in the industry came from video games, and I have worked in the games industry for a while, but my 'passion' has since grown to encompass software in general. You may be competing with a lot of people right now and these companies are employing ridiculous interview techniques to cut the fat but perhaps ending up over doing it. I've never stopped writing code, but some of these people interviewing will take the first opportunity to switch to a non-coding role like business analyst and i think the interviewers want to ensure your interest in coding is genuine.

  • by umbs on 3/23/17, 9:44 PM

    In recent past (6 months or so), I spoke to few people who were hired by AmaFaceGooSoft companies. The rigor and hours that people are putting to get in to these (or similar) companies is astounding. There are numerous startup training people for interviews. The question of: Is it worth putting so much effort for an interview is a topic of another discussion. 20-25 hrs/week of preparation over 4-6 month period is very common.

    From companies perspective, the bar for technical interviews has become very high. The actual job may not be hard to excel at. However, when the market is flooded with candidates acing this form of interviews, companies don't have to settle for "average" folks.

    Given this context, you have one thing in your favor: time. At this stage, put your time to very good use. Practice, rigorous practice, will land you a decent paying job. Experienced people, employed people, people with families are at a severe disadvantage because "Time" for preparation is a luxury they don't have (including me).

    Again, I am only providing you anecdotal evidence on how to ace these interviews.

  • by deft on 3/22/17, 6:20 AM

    Why not find a company that doesn't have these ridiculous interviews? I find a huge number of these require a full day of interviewing, and very few actually pay you for it. I just stopped going for the Big 4. Working at these places seems like hell anyway.

    Good luck on your search, my best advice is to change where you are looking.

  • by bsvalley on 3/22/17, 12:39 AM

    Do you need H1B sponsorship? If so, you're screwed. If not, then you're in competition with a LOT of people. The developer market is over saturated in the US since coding became mainstream with Obama and stuff...Everyone is learning how to code these days. Coding has been hot for the last 40 years and it's only now that America sees where the money is. We, the developers, quietly cashed-out for so many years. Our secret is out and I don't think they'll ever bring in developers from over seas.

    They'll hire someone locally who knows how to code and has a bit of experience. Companies have a handful of candidates applying to their crappy jobs in 2017. Supply >>> Demand. It reminds me 2008 minus the obvious recovery ahead.