Ask HN: How common are Google-style algorithms interviews outside of S.V.? - nso95
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JaviLopezG
I'm a developer from Spain. I worked in some tech companies and one of my jobs
as a freelancer is helping companies to get the best tech profiles.

Some companies are doing those tests (the less, about 10% but they are the big
ones). Other companies use developing test and give you some days to do it at
your home (about 20 or 30%). The other companies do not know anything, most of
them are consulting companies that are going to sell your time so they do not
mind if you know what you say, if the client is ok, and the client will buy
you because you have to hire 10 profiles and is only finding 5.

At this moment I hired (or helped hire) more than a hundred developers (and
other profiles, but most of them were developers) and based on that experience
I think that these tests are not useful.

If you want to know if a person really wants the position and she knows all
the things needed to develop, the second option may be a correct test.

If you want to know if a person can do the work you have to understand how she
is, and if you want to know what her tech capabilities are you can ask about
some standards like patterns and you can ask to read and explain some real
code.

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tananaev
I think most companies can't afford to do Google-style interviews. Google can
do it because it's a dream company for many people, so they are willing to
invest a lot of time in preparing for the interview.

Google-style interviews check two things and nothing more:

\- You are reasonably smart person

\- You are willing to spend a lot of time practicing and preparing for the
interview

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kzisme
Does most of it come down to memorization? I haven't ran into these styles of
interviews so far.

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zerr
Yes, it does. I mean, that's a lot of material. You prepare for the interview,
thus showing them how dedicated you are. No matter how "smart" you are, time
passes, you don't use 95% of that stuff during day to day work so naturally
you forget most of it. So for the next endeavor you have to rinse and repeat.
Everyone agrees that it's a game. I think the companies like it because it
discourages employees to switch jobs often and easily.

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marssaxman
This description bears no resemblance to the interview process I experienced
at Google before going to work there in 2012.

~~~
zerr
Interesting. Could you please elaborate?

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techjuice
If it is for an engineering job that you have to analyze, create, and manage a
large amount of data, optimize binary performance and security, write
distributed cloud applications that run on bare metal need to be real-time
capabilities, build custom routing and switching tech then the Google-style
algorithms are very popular.

As without the capabilities to do algorithms and data structures in depth it
will be very hard for the incoming engineer to get up to speed on high end
engineering projects already in progress along with being able to work on the
level required to build newer secure, scalable projects.

If the interviewee shows amazing potential, a good knowledgebase, and drive we
may give them a shot and evaluate their progress every six months to insure
they are learning what is required for increasing their maximum engineering
capabilities. As the worst thing we could do is throw away obvious great
capability and potential without giving them a shot, guidance and mentoring.

