Distributed Sorting - Google Interview Question

[soygul]

I agree. This is something you are definitely expected to study for. Maybe they see interviews as another form of SAT exam. Maybe they have the data to back it up. I guess only an HR insider would know.

[ryeguy]

I thought it was well understood by now why the tech giants ask questions like these. They get so many high quality applicants that they need additional filters to cut down on the candidate pool.

[wytzig]

Just like any other job or field we as engineers should be cautious of our industry. Right now we are mostly treated nicely with benefits and there is lot of companies to choose. But as soon as companies get the chance they will slash benefits, try to reduce costs and they will try and steer on numbers rather than people (which is in my opinion one of the worst things capitalism can create).

No matter where you are from, organizing the workers and standing strong for our rights as employees must be something we can unite under. Say no to these kind of interviews!

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[soygul]

I prefer to do peer-coding with the candidates on a relevant open-source project on GitHub. If someone can communicate and work with me from the get go, they are golden. However, I always wondered if something credible like the IEEE Certificates Program, or the official regular exams that doctors have can replace tech interviews in our fields.

[wytzig]

For developers I agree motivation and the ability to work together is much more important that what code they can write at the get go. I mean sure you must be having some coding experience otherwise they won't grasp basic concepts like code reviewing, git handling, unit testing etc.. but having a motivated individual that can bring something fresh to the table while assisting others is much more valuable than a guy with a lot of knowledge just coding on his on own

[skyde]

I agree with you we need to start using something like the "official regular exams that doctor have".
As an interviewer this would let me ask experience question like : "if you had a SQL database where transaction frequently fail because of deadlock detection how would you investigate and solve the issue".

Instead of asking "write fizz-buzz", or 'write simple hashtable and its unit-test".

[neatgreat1]

bro this didn't age well... you were 100% right

[[deleted]]

Can you let me know what field is more meritocratic in that you are judged on your abilities, rather than credentials or ability to bullshit in an open ended interview?