Comments on: How to Conduct a Good C++ Phone Interview http://thesmithfam.org/blog/2008/01/01/how-to-conduct-a-good-c-phone-interview/ Your blog is probably better than mine. Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:24:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Dave http://thesmithfam.org/blog/2008/01/01/how-to-conduct-a-good-c-phone-interview/#comment-37559 Dave Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:44:41 +0000 http://thesmithfam.org/blog/2008/02/01/how-to-conduct-a-good-c-phone-interview/#comment-37559 Yes, it is that cold. :( We have about a foot of snow outside my house right now. The real reason is that I had a new baby two months ago, and that has taken up all my time. I haven't so much as shaken the dust off my Styker or Yak since her birth. I think March ought to be a good flying month. Fingers crossed! Yes, it is that cold. :( We have about a foot of snow outside my house right now.

The real reason is that I had a new baby two months ago, and that has taken up all my time. I haven’t so much as shaken the dust off my Styker or Yak since her birth.

I think March ought to be a good flying month. Fingers crossed!

]]> By: Flyer http://thesmithfam.org/blog/2008/01/01/how-to-conduct-a-good-c-phone-interview/#comment-37555 Flyer Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:00:25 +0000 http://thesmithfam.org/blog/2008/02/01/how-to-conduct-a-good-c-phone-interview/#comment-37555 What about the planes? The planes! Is it that cold still in Utah? What about the planes? The planes! Is it that cold still in Utah?

]]> By: Dave http://thesmithfam.org/blog/2008/01/01/how-to-conduct-a-good-c-phone-interview/#comment-36432 Dave Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:21:01 +0000 http://thesmithfam.org/blog/2008/02/01/how-to-conduct-a-good-c-phone-interview/#comment-36432 Hans, Great comment. I'm not saying that I won't hire someone on the sole grounds of them not being able to come up with the bit-counter table. I'm just saying that all the candidates who couldn't come up with it, (even when asked "Could you implement a table-driven approach?") did so poorly on the rest of the interview that I didn't hire them. Seriously, if I say, "Could you come up with a table-driven approach?" and you give me a blank stare, I'm not going to hire you. I'm 100% sure that I *would* have hired you Hans. :) --Dave Hans,

Great comment. I’m not saying that I won’t hire someone on the sole grounds of them not being able to come up with the bit-counter table. I’m just saying that all the candidates who couldn’t come up with it, (even when asked “Could you implement a table-driven approach?”) did so poorly on the rest of the interview that I didn’t hire them.

Seriously, if I say, “Could you come up with a table-driven approach?” and you give me a blank stare, I’m not going to hire you.

I’m 100% sure that I *would* have hired you Hans. :)

–Dave

]]> By: Hans http://thesmithfam.org/blog/2008/01/01/how-to-conduct-a-good-c-phone-interview/#comment-36405 Hans Sun, 03 Feb 2008 17:13:20 +0000 http://thesmithfam.org/blog/2008/02/01/how-to-conduct-a-good-c-phone-interview/#comment-36405 You wouldn't have hired me. I was in an interview where I was asked the bits problem (or one similar anyway, it may not have had to do with bits but with stuff in a datastructure). I did it several different ways. They asked for faster. So I optimized it several different ways. I discussed with them the tradeoffs in space and time of everything I was doing. But I missed the lookup table approach. Did I not know how to do lookup tables? No, of course I knew. Am I a boring fool that can't think outside the box? I don't think so, but who knows? Would I have come up with the lookup table in the real world? Probably. I would say *definitely*, if it was the least bit important. If the speed of my program in some inner loop depended on the speed of this bit counting, I could certainly find my way to the lookup table. But in the *real* world, programmer time is usually much more important. So, because I'm not focused on premature optimization, because I was in a stressful interview situation, because I was being led on with vague questions and non-hints (not how you interact with a customer in the real world), and because I just assumed that they wanted clever and not simple because they were asking me stupid pony trick questions in the first place, I didn't pass their muster. I feel that I was the ideal candidate for the job I was interviewing, though in retrospect I'm very glad I didn't end up tied down to it because I don't think it would have been very good for me or my career. I feel like they lost out because they were fixated on their little test that nobody worth their salt could possibly get wrong. Alas, it's not so cut and dry. I don't even stress out in interviews - imagine a candidate that does stress out in interviews. All that said, I do like what you've said here. The bit about if the candidate is asking questions, seeing how they approach the problem, etc. You can learn a lot more about how good they are or can be by how they approach the problem, whether they ask the important questions, etc. than by whether they actually get to the answer in a short stressful non-real-world interview. You wouldn’t have hired me. I was in an interview where I was asked the bits problem (or one similar anyway, it may not have had to do with bits but with stuff in a datastructure). I did it several different ways. They asked for faster. So I optimized it several different ways. I discussed with them the tradeoffs in space and time of everything I was doing. But I missed the lookup table approach.

Did I not know how to do lookup tables? No, of course I knew. Am I a boring fool that can’t think outside the box? I don’t think so, but who knows? Would I have come up with the lookup table in the real world? Probably. I would say *definitely*, if it was the least bit important. If the speed of my program in some inner loop depended on the speed of this bit counting, I could certainly find my way to the lookup table. But in the *real* world, programmer time is usually much more important.

So, because I’m not focused on premature optimization, because I was in a stressful interview situation, because I was being led on with vague questions and non-hints (not how you interact with a customer in the real world), and because I just assumed that they wanted clever and not simple because they were asking me stupid pony trick questions in the first place, I didn’t pass their muster.

I feel that I was the ideal candidate for the job I was interviewing, though in retrospect I’m very glad I didn’t end up tied down to it because I don’t think it would have been very good for me or my career. I feel like they lost out because they were fixated on their little test that nobody worth their salt could possibly get wrong. Alas, it’s not so cut and dry. I don’t even stress out in interviews - imagine a candidate that does stress out in interviews.

All that said, I do like what you’ve said here. The bit about if the candidate is asking questions, seeing how they approach the problem, etc. You can learn a lot more about how good they are or can be by how they approach the problem, whether they ask the important questions, etc. than by whether they actually get to the answer in a short stressful non-real-world interview.

]]>