<story><title>Australian software engineer got asked algorithm question when entering US</title><url>http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stories/aussies-weird-immigration-interview-in-the-us/news-story/8222c65d2f12e6691ef27c9b1753e821</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lb1lf</author><text>One cannot but wonder what happens if you answer the question in a different manner than that suggested by Wikipedia or whichever resource the CBP draws their questions from.&lt;p&gt;I think the basic idea - questioning people about things they ought to know, given who they claim to be - is a good one.&lt;p&gt;However, it only makes sense if the one doing the questioning is able to judge the quality of the answer - or, for that matter, determine whether your inability to answer satisfactorily is because you bluffed - or if you&amp;#x27;re just a bit outside your professional comfort zone.&lt;p&gt;(I would probably have to answer &amp;#x27;software engineer&amp;#x27;, as that is what my business card says - however, I am much more of a hardware&amp;#x2F;systems guy in practice, only our HR department is completely unable to change my title to something a bit more descriptive. If speaking to another engineer, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have any problems convincing him of my bona fides - however, if a CBP officer just looks up question #13 in the &amp;#x27;SW engineer&amp;#x27; quiz - I may be in trouble.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>curryhowardiso</author><text>Hey there!&lt;p&gt;I am the subject of the article and to my knowledge I wasn&amp;#x27;t &amp;#x27;assessed&amp;#x27; in any formal capacity (certainly not at the level of cross-referencing anything with Wikipedia)&lt;p&gt;I am thoroughly convinced that just getting down and putting code on paper in a confident way got me across that border!&lt;p&gt;So, if I had any advice for others it would be to do what you normally do in a software interview: act really convincing - even if you&amp;#x27;re a bit flustered!</text></comment>
<story><title>Australian software engineer got asked algorithm question when entering US</title><url>http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stories/aussies-weird-immigration-interview-in-the-us/news-story/8222c65d2f12e6691ef27c9b1753e821</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lb1lf</author><text>One cannot but wonder what happens if you answer the question in a different manner than that suggested by Wikipedia or whichever resource the CBP draws their questions from.&lt;p&gt;I think the basic idea - questioning people about things they ought to know, given who they claim to be - is a good one.&lt;p&gt;However, it only makes sense if the one doing the questioning is able to judge the quality of the answer - or, for that matter, determine whether your inability to answer satisfactorily is because you bluffed - or if you&amp;#x27;re just a bit outside your professional comfort zone.&lt;p&gt;(I would probably have to answer &amp;#x27;software engineer&amp;#x27;, as that is what my business card says - however, I am much more of a hardware&amp;#x2F;systems guy in practice, only our HR department is completely unable to change my title to something a bit more descriptive. If speaking to another engineer, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have any problems convincing him of my bona fides - however, if a CBP officer just looks up question #13 in the &amp;#x27;SW engineer&amp;#x27; quiz - I may be in trouble.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>golergka</author><text>&amp;gt; One cannot but wonder what happens if you answer the question in a different manner than that suggested by Wikipedia or whichever resource the CBP draws their questions from.&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;re looking at your overall attitude, not checking your knowledge of trivia. Answering the question about inverting a binary tree wrongly still means you understand what &amp;quot;binary tree&amp;quot; is and can at least come up with a couple of sentences with that term that sound coherent and resemble what is written in Wikipedia in broadest terms. For comparison, ask your non-engineering friends to answer the same question, even to try to fake an answer as best as they can.</text></comment>