<story><title>Microsoft changed how it interviews software developers</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.fr/us/microsoft-new-developer-interview-process-2018-12</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kronin</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve interviewed and been interviewing for over a decade. I have had the displeasure of interviewing many people who have very impressive resumes yet when asked how they would judge their skillset in an area, and being told from them that they would say &amp;quot;expert&amp;quot;, being shown exactly the opposite when it came time to answer some questions in that area.&lt;p&gt;One data point... Senior engineer that founded the local java user group and wrote a published book on the java language. Couldn&amp;#x27;t code a simple reverse string algorithm, nor explain whether, after with help devising an answer, the method was thread-safe.&lt;p&gt;Another data point... A self-described expert in SQL with it all over their resume. Couldn&amp;#x27;t write a simple join, inner outer or other.&lt;p&gt;Weed-out questions exist because our industry is flooded with people who don&amp;#x27;t know, nor care to know, their craft. And there are plenty of employers who continue to hire these people, and promote them. I interviewed numerous &amp;quot;architects&amp;quot; (with development experience all over their resume) who couldn&amp;#x27;t come up with a naive solution, let alone the optimal, to a very simple problem. Want to fix the interview process in our industry? Figure out a way to weed out the liars? I&amp;#x27;m all for it. I would rather not have to do basic algorithm questions, but that&amp;#x27;s the current environment.</text></item><item><author>mancerayder</author><text>Great, now can Netflix, Google and Facebook do this, too?  Not because I want to work in these places, but because  they influence everyone else and as a senior engineer in the systems space I feel I shouldn&amp;#x27;t need to study days or weeks for fizzbuzz sorting algorithms questions that are designed to test comp sci recent grads.  I have a proven career, and was never suddenly stumped in a project due to not being able to..  sort letters in some obscure order based on arbitrary rules.  How about we look at that, and compare the candidate&amp;#x27;s past experience to the current needs and interview based on that --  You DID look at the CV before bringing the candidate in, didn&amp;#x27;t you?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>geebee</author><text>Totally reasonable response. However, it seems like we&amp;#x27;re on an endless loop with this discussion. People talk about how they need technical interviews because someone who looks good on paper can&amp;#x27;t code reverse string, or write a basic join. But here&amp;#x27;s the thing, absolutely none of my technical interviews have involved anything remotely this simple. They are &amp;quot;find all matching matching subtrees in a binary search tree&amp;quot;, or &amp;quot;find all possible matrices with a negative determinant within an NxM matrix of arbitrary size&amp;quot;, and it&amp;#x27;s supposed to be done in about 45 minutes, at the whiteboard.&lt;p&gt;Really, it&amp;#x27;s not fizz buzz or string reversal that causes people to re-study for their algorithms and data structures exam before an interview.&lt;p&gt;In many ways, I think this is similar to requiring that senior actuaries re-study integration by parts prior to every interview. They don&amp;#x27;t have to, because they have a proper exam that is widely accepted in their field. We don&amp;#x27;t. So instead, we are taken through full day whiteboard exams, under conditions of great secrecy, over and over, every time we interview.</text></comment>
<story><title>Microsoft changed how it interviews software developers</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.fr/us/microsoft-new-developer-interview-process-2018-12</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kronin</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve interviewed and been interviewing for over a decade. I have had the displeasure of interviewing many people who have very impressive resumes yet when asked how they would judge their skillset in an area, and being told from them that they would say &amp;quot;expert&amp;quot;, being shown exactly the opposite when it came time to answer some questions in that area.&lt;p&gt;One data point... Senior engineer that founded the local java user group and wrote a published book on the java language. Couldn&amp;#x27;t code a simple reverse string algorithm, nor explain whether, after with help devising an answer, the method was thread-safe.&lt;p&gt;Another data point... A self-described expert in SQL with it all over their resume. Couldn&amp;#x27;t write a simple join, inner outer or other.&lt;p&gt;Weed-out questions exist because our industry is flooded with people who don&amp;#x27;t know, nor care to know, their craft. And there are plenty of employers who continue to hire these people, and promote them. I interviewed numerous &amp;quot;architects&amp;quot; (with development experience all over their resume) who couldn&amp;#x27;t come up with a naive solution, let alone the optimal, to a very simple problem. Want to fix the interview process in our industry? Figure out a way to weed out the liars? I&amp;#x27;m all for it. I would rather not have to do basic algorithm questions, but that&amp;#x27;s the current environment.</text></item><item><author>mancerayder</author><text>Great, now can Netflix, Google and Facebook do this, too?  Not because I want to work in these places, but because  they influence everyone else and as a senior engineer in the systems space I feel I shouldn&amp;#x27;t need to study days or weeks for fizzbuzz sorting algorithms questions that are designed to test comp sci recent grads.  I have a proven career, and was never suddenly stumped in a project due to not being able to..  sort letters in some obscure order based on arbitrary rules.  How about we look at that, and compare the candidate&amp;#x27;s past experience to the current needs and interview based on that --  You DID look at the CV before bringing the candidate in, didn&amp;#x27;t you?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dom96</author><text>I have very little experience with interviewing candidates, but how can you be certain these people were liars? Maybe they simply were having a bad day, or got too much in their head with stress during the interview. There are many factors at play when it comes to a bad performance and it&amp;#x27;s not always simply that the engineer doesn&amp;#x27;t know the answer.</text></comment>