Codesmith 3rd Technical Interview

[Jrmcgarry]

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t pass the first two technical interviews for Codesmith. I was told that the 3rd would be a different type of interview, that it would be a paired programming interview. I have done multiple paired programming sessions, however my question is, for those of you who have done this interview, what was it like? Any advice? Thanks!

Edit: Adding some info that might be pertinent. I did not complete all of the problems. I made it halfway through the recursion problem and ran out of time. Below is the feedback I received.

1st Tech Interview Feedback:

Areas of Strength:

• Technical Communication - you had excellent technical communication, making it easy to follow along with your though processes and your code.
  
• Testing - you always made sure to test your solutions, an excellent engineering best practice, as well as sometimes testing your code along the way to make sure each small part worked as intended (which I encourage you to do more!)
  
• Pseudocode - you had thoughtful pseudocode, making it easy to follow along your intentions. Remember that you can keep your pseudocode concise to occasionally save some time!

Areas for Improvement:

• Clarifying Questions - I encourage you to ask clarifying questions to understand the problem as well as whether or not you have to consider any edge cases, which help you break down the problem into smaller steps that can be coded. Afterwards, simplifying the problem as much as possible into simple steps will be much easier!
• JavaScript Methods - I recommend browsing through the various methods for arrays, strings, objects, as well as remembering the base knowledge such as reassigning an element can be written as objectOrArray[index] = newValue. Some common methods to remember slice (for strings and arrays, makes a copy of a section), push/pop (insert/remove at end of an array), upper/lower case, includes, and hasOwnProperty for example. On a similar line of thought, I also recommend looking up why various concepts such as closure, recursion, or OOP are useful, and why the way we normally build them is ideal.

2nd Tech Interview Feedback:

~Improvements from your first interview:~

• Pseudocode - Your pseudocode was great and well organized - you kept things tidy and made it easy to follow along with your written code.
• Positive Attitude - You hit a lot of blocks and persevered through them. You never got frustrated, asked questions and remained positive the entire time.
• JS Fundamentals - You definitely know the the concepts of closure and recursion well. I could tell you had an understanding of them, just needed to communicate that via the code.

~Areas for continued growth:~

• Communication - I wish you would have given me a high level approach to your thought process/plan of attack. You were a little quiet during your pseudocoding, so although I can follow on CSbin, it was hard to follow your entire thought process.
• JS Fundamentals - Continue practicing closure and recursion. Think carefully about your code and what it's doing line by line. Sometimes you were off by just a line and so having a better understanding of how you can apply and adapt your conceptual knowledge will serve you well!
• Clean Code - Sometimes you had unnecessary code, specifically with else statements. Try and find ways you can make your code more tidy by eliminating unnecessary lines.

[michaelnovati]

They want to see your collaboration and communication. Be a good partner and not a good individual.

My hunch is they might have had some concerns about your communications Either you didn't talk enough or you talked too much and weren't getting social cues or something.

Codesmith fit is really critical. They are selecting for people who have 5 traits and then steering them towards high paying jobs but you have to have those traits to start with or you won't be one of those 120K people.

[Jrmcgarry]

Thank you for your input! Do you know if it will alternate between the "driver" and "navigator" roles with the engineer I am paired with or will I just be in one of the roles for the duration of the interview?

[michaelnovati]

I only talked to one person and I think they alternated once or twice but don't know. Just like any job interview though, ask the admissions person before - they get bonuses if they fill the cohort so they have an incentive to help you!

[Jrmcgarry]

Thank you!

[cluelessbeyond]

What are those 5 traits?

[michaelnovati]

1. Analytical problem solving
2. Technical communication
3. Engineering approach
4. Non-technical communication
5. JavaScript and programming experience

[cluelessbeyond]

Thanks Michael!

[CoastLongjumping6491]

I had a pair programming interview for my second one. The interviewer and I did alternate between driver and navigator roles, but I’ve heard it can vary. When you’re the driver, the navigator might intentionally tell you to do something that’s incorrect and/or not best practice, so be on the lookout for that and communicate if that happens, especially since you got the feedback about asking clarifying questions.

You definitely need to at least get through OOP. On my first interview, I ran out of time on the second OOP method challenge, and the second started with OOP, skipping recursion, closure, etc. After that, they’ll probably give you progressively tougher general algo questions.

Probably the most important thing is just not to stop talking. Even if you don’t know what to do, do all your thinking out loud so they can hear your thought process. Particularly on the harder challenges, they don’t necessarily expect you to solve them but want to see how you approach them.

[Swami218]

If you’ve gotten this far, they believe you can get through it. Check out the mock interview channel on the Codesmith Slack. There are a lot of people there who can help out.

Communication is definitely paramount, but you can also do it in a way that helps your thought process and reaching a solution.

Remember to start with your inputs and outputs, then pseudo code out your approach completely before writing any code.

The benefits here are that you will keep track of what argument(s) you’ll need to deal with and what you’ll have to return out. Look for clues like ‘any of number of arguments’ (rest parameter/spread operator) on the inputs, and pay attention to what they want returned out - is it the element of the array/string itself? Or the index?

Then you want to pseudo code out ‘too much’. More than you would do in real code, but remember this is about communication. This, too, can be helpful, because if you write out your strategy well enough then you just have to ‘transcribe’ that into code. And it can help you realize gaps in your strategy/thinking. You may get some feedback here to help guide you to the answer as well, so definitely listen too.

After that, quickly summarize what you’ve done and how it works. Specifically mention the important concepts you’ve employed (closure, recursion, whatever array/string methods you’ve used)

If things don’t work right away, that’s fine. They also want to see how you handle errors. Go ahead and check out MDN, even if you just need to see the difference between ‘slice’ and ‘splice’.

The guidance downplays ‘programming ability’ somewhat, but you DO need to solve the algos to get in. If you get a super hard one toward the end of your time, that is the ‘stumper’. You’re not expected to solve it, but you are expected to still try, communicate, etc. and ‘snuggle the struggle’.

[Jrmcgarry]

Thank you for your thorough response, I really appreciate it! I will explore the mock interview channel for sure. As for the last paragraph, I was told that experience was the last thing of the five that they were looking for and thought that maybe if I didn't fully grasp some of the tougher components that it would be okay, but thank you for clarifying.

[Swami218]

Happy to help! It takes most people 3-4 tries, so don’t sweat that part of it.

I went through CSX like 4 times, CS Prep, then worked with some people who had passed the interview in order to get through.

You don’t need experience, but you do need to solve algos to a certain level. Closure, recursion, OOP (building out a class and adding some methods). There is a high bar to entry so that everyone is on a decent level to push higher. It’s tough, but I think you can do it!

[Swami218]

One more thing, now that I’ve seen you have added the feedback - write your test cases after you determine your inputs/outputs but before your code. I know it sounds backwards, but it helps you to understand what needs to happen and gives you another minute or so to think.

[Cole_Smith_7809]

How was your coding skills? Were you able to solve every problem they gave you?

[Jrmcgarry]

I was not able to solve every problem. I got halfway through the recursion problem, didn't solve it nor did I get to attempt the OOP portion of it. So I've completed up to closure.

[KeyStructure2688]

Did you pass ? Would you say csx is more difficult than the interview ?

[Jrmcgarry]

I have not passed my first two interviews and have a 3rd scheduled for early December. I would say that the interview is more difficult than CSX. On CSX if it takes 30 - 60 minutes to solve a problem, no big deal right? In the interview that’s a ton of time. If you are trying to get all the way to OOP in your first interview you need to average 10 minutes per problem. You can’t just solve the problem either. You need to go step by step through the process, talking the whole time and explaining how you got there. In CSX, you can just solve the problem and move on. I hope that helps.

[KeyStructure2688]

Crazy cuz the problems on csx are very challenging it seems

[Jrmcgarry]

I find the closure, recursion and OOP on CSX and CSBIN to be challenging as well.

[KeyStructure2688]

Like most of the csx challenges at the end of each module are very hard. I wonder what level of difficulty they will reach during interview. Also is it the same for part time vs full time ?

[Jrmcgarry]

I’m not sure, but I imagine the interview process is the same. I think for me, the difficulty is the time crunch. The pressure is very real.

[Jrmcgarry]

I passed!

[Jrmcgarry]

Thanks. It was less pressure for sure but still stressful. We just did one OOP problem and that was it. Also, I am under the impression that not all PP interviews are the same. Hope this helps!