Questions tagged [interview]

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3 answers
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Handling a Refactoring Project with Limited Access to Source Code

I recently finished an interview with a company as a web developer. I'm the first and only developer that is about to be hired in this company. They have a web application that was created by a ...
7 votes
1 answer
2k views

How do you make sure your logs are sufficient? [closed]

I was in a job interview with a vp r&d today. One of his questions went something like: "How do you make sure your code works?" This question struck me as a bit strange, so I explained ...
5 votes
10 answers
26k views

Do coding puzzles make good interview questions [closed]

I am interviewing candidates for Java programmer positions. My colleague insists in filling more than half of the interview with java coding puzzles.His view is that, if candidates are able to ...
-1 votes
1 answer
1k views

Will conversion of a string to a list, and vice versa count in time complexity?

Assume that there is a question where a string needs to be passed. Some modification needs to be done on the string and then returned back. For the programming languages like C where a string is a ...
2 votes
6 answers
596 views

Does the workload problem belong to a class of computer science problem?

I went for an interview, and got a workload problem: Problem: write a function to tell whether a series of workloads will exceed the maximum workload or not Input: MaxWorkLoad: example 10 ...
-1 votes
1 answer
2k views

Test Cases in an Interview Setting

In the first cracking the coding interview video Ms. McDowell talks about candidates that begin by writing test cases in whiteboard interviews. How would one go about this? For example, the ...
4 votes
5 answers
19k views

Java SE and Java EE? [duplicate]

I was now talking with some people and they told me that if i was intrested in a job in the future for Java programming i should not spend too much time only learning Java SE i should spend time ...
0 votes
1 answer
293 views

Find two horizontal lines to minimize distance to scattered points

I am having trouble with a coding question that I found practicing for a interview: A scatter graph of points on a page, draw two horizontal lines (these lines are parallel) across the page such that ...
41 votes
18 answers
11k views

How important is it to be syntactically correct during an interview? [closed]

When asking an interview candidate to write a program on the whiteboard, do you expect the candidate to write code that is syntactically correct? I had two candidates, one of which wrote a ...
31 votes
13 answers
2k views

How do you ascertain the quality of a potential employer's code before you take a position? [closed]

In my experience before you start working for a company you have no opportunity to look at the code-base (I've asked and for reasons of confidentiality everyone has always said no, I think that is ...
10 votes
6 answers
4k views

How to evaluate code quality when you're not familiar with the language? [closed]

As a hypothetical, if I were to interview someone for a new PHP developer position when my experience is in .NET, how can I determine if the code sample they've provided me is efficient and of good ...
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

Strange interview question or deceptively simple? [closed]

Hi all: I've gotten this question like four times interviewing in silicon valley. What is the correct solution? Shuffling a deck of cards. The problem description is as follows: You are given a ...
10 votes
5 answers
1k views

Do other developers feel that as they get better, it becomes harder to get jobs? [closed]

When I was starting out, it seemed I had a much better time getting interviews and passing them. But now that I'm more experienced, I'm finding that its harder and harder to find a job. Do other ...
-2 votes
1 answer
342 views

Should I show my commit history on an Interview Question? [closed]

I recently did a phone interview with a company. The interviewer told me that he didn't like like to get people to write code on the spot without access to stack overflow or documentation because that'...
17 votes
6 answers
4k views

Being the only developer and its consequences [closed]

I am the only developer in my company. I do programming (in ASP.NET 4.0, jQuery and SQL Server 2008) and maintain the database and web server (win 2008 r2). I enjoy the freedom of implementing what I ...
11 votes
5 answers
69k views

How do you answer "explain current architecture of your project" question in interviews? [closed]

The application which I am working on currently is a bit huge. It cannot be explained in 15 minutes or so. Last time I ended up drawing some class diagrams and how they are linked, but I could see ...
18 votes
3 answers
3k views

How to avoid jumping to a solution when under pressure? [closed]

When under a particularly strict programming deadline (like an hour), if I panic at all, my tendency is to jump into coding without a real plan and hope I figure it out as I go along. Given enough ...
7 votes
7 answers
2k views

Why would an employer ask for a 'long' code sample? [closed]

What would a large project that spanned multiple files and >1000 lines show to an employer that a few individual files and a couple hundred lines couldn't capture?
27 votes
8 answers
48k views

Good interview programming projects [closed]

I'm looking for some small programming projects that I can give potential employees to gauge their programming abilities. These will be programmers straight out of college. I'm looking for projects ...
58 votes
3 answers
112k views

How can I test PHP skills in a interview? [closed]

My company needs to hire a PHP developer, but nobody has PHP knowledge in my company and we find difficult to test for PHP skills. If it were a C/Java developer I would ask him to write a quick ...
32 votes
10 answers
20k views

Why the question "give five things you hate about C#" is so difficult to answer during an interview? [closed]

In podcast 73, Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood discuss, among other subjects, "five things everyone should hate about their favorite programming language": If you’re happy with your current tool chain,...
37 votes
9 answers
15k views

Is it appropriate to ask for reasons after rejected after the interview? [closed]

I thought I did okay in the interviews but apparently the interviewers didn't think so. Is it appropriate to ask for a reason after I have received the rejection email? After all I don't want to annoy ...
82 votes
8 answers
9k views

What is the relevance of resumes in the age of GitHub, Stack Exchange, Coursera, Udacity, blogs, etc.? [closed]

My resume is no longer relevant. It can no longer contain an adequate description of my technical abilities. One can get a much better sense of what I am capable of by looking at my GitHub ...
13 votes
12 answers
6k views

I keep failing hands on part of the interview, suggestions? [closed]

So I have a couple of software/site in my portfolio. They make money but not a whole lot. So I decided to get some job experience, mainly applying to Java/PHP junior development positions. The ...
14 votes
13 answers
8k views

What sources of sample work should be used in a job interview? [closed]

One of my friends has been laid off. When I talked to him, he said they didn't let him take a copy of anything he worked on. When he asked how to show what he worked on to another employer in an ...
1 vote
1 answer
308 views

Should Someone without Programming Knowledge Phone Screen? [closed]

I've been given most of the hiring responsibilities and will be conducting the in-person interviews. I'm also going through the resumes for worthy candidates. The plan is to have the HR department do ...
13 votes
2 answers
14k views

In need of a more technical answer for an interview question about how the internet works from beginning to end [closed]

I've had interviews with 5 separate people over the past two weeks and three of those five have all asked me this question: Explain what happens between hitting "Google.com" and the page coming up on ...
44 votes
6 answers
9k views

Engineering interview candidate refuses to use whiteboard [duplicate]

Today I experienced a first in a technical interview. The candidate refused to use the whiteboard to solve an algorithm question, as I requested. There was no sort of disability at play or anything (...
14 votes
8 answers
20k views

Whiteboard "testing" during an interview: legitimate way to back up your (whiteboard) code? [closed]

As I get it, having an error (even a typo like or missing ";") in your whiteboard code will often cost you some interview points. Avoiding that will inevitably make one proof-reading code again and ...
2 votes
1 answer
5k views

How to prepare for INTERVIEW with PAIR PROGRAMMING (C#) [closed]

I have a stage in an interview process where I am supposed to do pair programming, or at least they want to see me working in Visual Studio with an experienced developer. This is a company promoting ...
37 votes
7 answers
4k views

What standards can be expected from graduate/junior engineers? [closed]

Are buffer overflows acceptable from a graduate developer? Are we setting the bar too high? What are the expected capabilities of graduate/junior engineers? Context: We are currently recruiting for ...
14 votes
9 answers
11k views

Should I give the answer to a failed interview coding exercise? [closed]

We had a senior level interview candidate fail a nuance of the FizzBuzz question12. I mean, really, utterly, completely, failed the question - not even close. I even coached him through to thinking ...
23 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is there any formal research in FizzBuzz Question Effectiveness? [closed]

After seeing this question today on variation of the FizzBuzz interview question, as well as seeing other questions related to it around, I have to ask: is there any formal research on how effective ...
44 votes
13 answers
12k views

Is it bad interview practice to have candidates write a linked-list implementation? [closed]

Reading this site and SO I've seen many stories of interview questions and answers saying a candidate had to implement a linked list from scratch. Usually this is a "gimme" exercise for programming ...
34 votes
6 answers
60k views

How to prepare yourself for programming interview questions? [closed]

Possible Duplicate: Really “wow” them in the interview Let's say I appear for an interview. What questions could I expect and how do I prepare?
10 votes
3 answers
19k views

Good way to learn how to solve questions on InterviewStreet [closed]

Possible Duplicate: How do I adapt to pre-interview challenge questions? InterviewStreet is a new company that essentially acts as a filter for companies to find programmers that can code. My ...
49 votes
17 answers
51k views

How to check or assess debugging skills of a person? [closed]

What kind of skills determine a person that is capable of debugging code with ease? Some time ago my friend carried out an interview with a relatively good programmer. The programmer got hired. He ...
24 votes
7 answers
40k views

What should my "code sample" look like? [closed]

I've just had quite a good phone interview (for a CakePHP-related position, not that it's especially important to the question). The interviewer seemed to be impressed with my resume and personality. ...
36 votes
11 answers
27k views

How do I design an arbitrary system in an interview? [closed]

A common question in Tech Interview is to design a particular system, usually an existing product of the company. For example, "Design Google Docs". What is the expected answer for such a question? I ...
4 votes
3 answers
978 views

Please tell me I'm not alone (can't program on paper) [duplicate]

So I went to a job interview today. Long story short, the interviewers were delighted with my knowledge and experience, they were practically showing me to my new desk. Needless to say, what delighted ...
7 votes
7 answers
9k views

What to watch out for when writing code at an Interview? [closed]

I have read that at a lot of companies you have to write code at an interview. On the one hand I see that it makes sense to ask for a work sample. On the other hand: What kind of code do you expect to ...
-1 votes
1 answer
802 views

Will a MQ topic persist messages when one of the consumers is down [closed]

If I have a websphere MQ topic and 3 listeners have subscribed to the Topic. One listener is down when a message comes in the Topic. Other listeners consume the message. When the listener comes back ...
3 votes
5 answers
3k views

Job Interview Challenges [closed]

The other day, in our PHP class, our teacher gave us a challenge used by a friend of his in job interviews. It works in every programming language, so it's not limited to PHP. He said that his friend ...
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

Licensing code submitted after job interview [duplicate]

I applied for a job in a small company (~25 employees) on December and after a month the CEO of the company wrote to me that he is interested to interview me. During the interview I got a bad ...
-1 votes
1 answer
313 views

Does the phrase "range for R1-1 through R10H" actually have an agreed-upon meaning? [closed]

I was recently sent a code test by a potential employer to complete on my own time. The first question has to do with identifying whether a given zoning code falls within a range of codes. I'm not ...
15 votes
8 answers
32k views

OO Design related questions in technical interviews [closed]

I've been attending quite a few interviews recently and have been asked by companies to answer "design a [insert model]" questions more than a few times. Is this normal in the industry nowadays? I've ...
101 votes
16 answers
55k views

How can I tell in an interview if a programmer is passionate about programming? [closed]

While most interview questions are focused on current knowledge of a candidate or check his/her skill to solve algorithmic problems I would like to hire a developer who is passionate about programming....
1 vote
3 answers
275 views

Would be good to include your freelancer account in your Resume / CV when applying for a job? [closed]

I've been working as a freelancer for about two years in vWorker. Any person can visit a coder's profile, and see in how many projects the coder has worked on, (if the coders allows) see how much the ...
128 votes
11 answers
10k views

Is it appropriate for interviewers to ask candidates for their Stack Exchange user name? [closed]

Would you consider it appropriate if you were asked for your Stack Exchange username in a software job interview (or as a pre-interview screening question)? To me, it seems like a very reasonable ...
12 votes
2 answers
2k views

Storing 5000 elements on client side in a web application [closed]

I just had a phone interview for ASP.Net developer, after initial introductory stuff the interviewer ask me first technical question: "How would you store 5000 elements on client side for each user ...

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