New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Is my starter interview question too simple?
Ask HN: Is my starter interview question too simple?
3 by faanghacker | 5 comments on Hacker News.
I conduct SWE candidate interviews at Google. My first question is intended to be a conceptually simple one, where the candidate must translate a certain everyday business logic into code. The logic has to do with counting the number of days from the beginning of the year, for a given date. I provide the number of days per month if the candidate doesn't know them. I also provide a function to check for leap years. There isn't anything inherently tricky about it. I added this question as a warm-up question before the other two main questions that are more conventional coding interview questions that involve algorithms and data structures. The solution is simpler than the solution to the two main questions. To my surprise, I found that most candidates take half of the 45 minutes allotted to do this question. It's only meant to take no more than 10 minutes. Many do the other two questions in less time. While I won't directly post the question here, I wonder if it's so simple that my candidates are wondering if there's a hidden trick. Could that be why the candidates are taking so long?
3 by faanghacker | 5 comments on Hacker News.
I conduct SWE candidate interviews at Google. My first question is intended to be a conceptually simple one, where the candidate must translate a certain everyday business logic into code. The logic has to do with counting the number of days from the beginning of the year, for a given date. I provide the number of days per month if the candidate doesn't know them. I also provide a function to check for leap years. There isn't anything inherently tricky about it. I added this question as a warm-up question before the other two main questions that are more conventional coding interview questions that involve algorithms and data structures. The solution is simpler than the solution to the two main questions. To my surprise, I found that most candidates take half of the 45 minutes allotted to do this question. It's only meant to take no more than 10 minutes. Many do the other two questions in less time. While I won't directly post the question here, I wonder if it's so simple that my candidates are wondering if there's a hidden trick. Could that be why the candidates are taking so long?
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