
Ask HN: What are job interview questions that can be used to reject regardless - dangban
What are some job interview questions that can be used to reject candidates regardless of how they answer? (Double Bind.)
======
btown
"Tell us a story about how you took down production."

A reasonable question. But if you really need to reject the candidate (for
instance, if you're attempting to resist, or provide cover for resisting,
someone brought in e.g. by the bad kind of nepotism), no matter how much they
talk about how it led them to build systems to prevent similar disasters, as
an interviewer you can selectively choose to focus on the mindset that led
them to break the system in the first place.

In general, though, if you're looking for ways to disqualify a candidate based
on other than merit, you should examine your own biases against the candidate.
Don't be evil.

~~~
stcredzero
_" Tell us a story about how you took down production."_

We had a real need for batch queries, so I built a declarative batch query
mechanism for our in-house ORM. To do this, we needed to make actual objects
representing database relations. Unfortunately, the "collections of lambdas"
we were using as an ORM had started getting polluted with buisness logic. So I
used a parser/rewrite engine to match the un-polluted DB transformation
lambdas and to substitute DB column and relation objects implementing the same
logic in the un-polluted lambdas.

I checked in a massive change affecting 2500 of the ~5000 lambdas,
syntactically matching the logic in all 2500 of those with the parser
framework, and then also vetted everything by hand. I was 100% sure the logic
was duplicated exactly. This would allow us to introduce the objects, and it
would also stop the march of business logic into the DB framework. Everything
checked out in QA, so we moved it to production.

Production immediately came to a screeching halt. However, in under an hour, I
discovered that a coworker had polluted an even lower level of the ORM
framework with business logic. (The code that called the lambdas in the first
place.) We replicated that logic in the new framework, and everything worked
100%. I also came out a huge hero in the end, because the batch query
mechanism I introduced reduced the average number of queries for opening a
portfolio from ~2500 to only 50, and because it was declarative, it could be
reused by any programmer very easily.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
> Production immediately came to a screeching halt. However, in under an hour,
> I discovered that a coworker had polluted an even lower level of the ORM
> framework with business logic.

"I see. So you failed to communicate effectively with a coworker, which
resulted in an hour of downtime. I didn't hear you mention anything about
seeing this as a problem, let alone addressing it. Thanks for your time."

~~~
stcredzero
_So you failed to communicate effectively with a coworker, which resulted in
an hour of downtime._

Nope. He was privy to our stopping the flow of business logic into the DB/ORM
code. He failed to realize the implications and communicate with _us_.

 _I didn 't hear you mention anything about seeing this as a problem, let
alone addressing it._

Pure projection. Of course that's a problem. Thanks for disqualifying yourself
up front.

~~~
ryanchoi
I figure you wanted to defend your take regardless, but the quotes indicated
to me that the parent was posing as the company that wanted to reject the
candidate no matter what the answer was. :)

~~~
stcredzero
And I was roleplaying as myself, rejecting the company.

~~~
hluska
That was nicely done and I agree - I'd rather be unemployed than work for a
company that would think through something like that! Great job. :)

------
wallflower
A very long time ago, for a job not in the software industry, I had to take
one of those multiple-choice exams they use to screen employees. There were
probably 100 questions. One of the questions was something like "Have you ever
been dishonest?". I probably dishonestly answered that question (with a no)
and was thus probably red-flagged by the "Machine" and never proceeded in the
interview process.

~~~
chatmasta
This sentence is a lie.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar_paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar_paradox)

------
segmondy
None! There's no question that is needed to reject you. You can answer all
questions correctly and be rejected. There's no reason to really think too
much of this, go in, answer to the best of your knowledge and be a pleasant
person. If the interview decides to reject you due to any prejudice of their
own, you probably escaped a nightmare, and the companies loss.

------
bjourne
A long while ago I was in an interview where the interviewer retold a story
about a white (yes, skin color was relevant) adventuring motorcyclist in
Africa. Anyways, he was driving by himself in southern Africa in Namibia or
so. Then outside a village the motorcycle broke down and he got into a
horrible accident that broke his leg.

The villagers came and saw that he was wounded. So they started to take pieces
of his packing, of his motorcycle and even his expensive wrist watch. He laid
there in pain outside the village for several hours as none of the natives
helped him. Until another white motorcyclist came and helped him up on his
bike and drove him to a hospital. The end.

To this date I have nfc why he told me this story or why he thought it was
relevant in a developer interview. Fairly sure it was an elaborate test though
with only bad answers possible.

~~~
trapsta
Most weird interview anecdote ever

------
yayana
How many years of PHP/JavaScript/Python/C++ experience do you have?

We are looking for a lot of experience in the latest version using the latest
testing and development practices. We don't want to hire people with bad
habits.

------
usgroup
The double bind :) You've got to love a good double bind.

An interviewer doesn't really have to ask you anything. They can just decide
on the basis of what you didn't say instead.

"When asked about his JS experience, he mentioned Y without mentioning X."

A more interesting question would be, can you think of a double bind that
allows the interviewer to take either side without looking like a hypocrite
over multiple interviews?

------
pascalxus
I found from my own experience both on the hiring side and the candidate side,
that there isn't always such a good correlation between getting answers right
and being hired or not. Sometimes you get everything right and still don't get
the job. On the other hand, sometimes someone might fail miserably and still
get the job. It's not like school, where everything is objective.

------
gesman
"Have you ever used company computer to search for information unrelated to
your job?"

Yes => We cannot hire you

No => Liar! We cannot hire you.

------
krackers
Not an interview question itself, but rejecting based on lack of "culture fit"
seems to be pretty standard practice. I'm not sure why such a trick question
is even needed however, since regardless of how the candidate does the
decision to hire is ultimately a black-box that the candidate won't know
anything about.

~~~
matt_the_bass
I think the OPis asking for something that can be used for internal
debate/procedures, not the reason communicated to candidates.

------
ArtWomb
This is evil. But, perhaps also inevitable. "Would you mind providing a DNA
sample"? You can always find some "liability" within the multitudes of
potential markers.

See _Gattaca_ for a vision of this possible future ;)

------
bsvalley
any question would be eligible for that. What if you don't spit out the exact
answer your interviewer is excepting? Well, you're out.

------
quickthrower2
Regardless of how they answer? Like a trick question? Sounds sinister. Why
would you want this I wonder?

------
Chyzwar
I do not think that you need justification to reject someone. It is waste of
time for you and candidate.

------
kojeovo
You can reject a candidate based on any conversation you may have, regardless
of what they say. But why?

------
paulcole
Any question works for this:

• What's your favorite color?

• What are your weaknesses?

• What are your strengths?

• When's the last time you did something unethical?

------
taprun
Tell me about a time you put your own self-interest ahead of your employer's.

~~~
S4M
Right now as I am interviewing instead of working overtime for free.

