Ask HN: A job interview you enjoyed?
29 comments
Arista Networks, in Santa Clara.
First round, I had to do 2 coding questions in an hour, 30 mins for each question. I had to go to their campus. They would give me a laptop/environment of my choice and then time starts. Questions were very easy, so the expectation was reasonable.
Second round on On-site was two interviews: Director of engineering asked me why certain piece of C code was behaving in a certain way. I could not answer, but we compiled the code into Assembly and tried to understand the behavior. An hour later, the CTO of the company, Ken Duda, walked in and he asked me an Object Oriented question and some of my past projects. Really drilled me. He gave very simple design of same projects. Very educative and amazed to see a brilliant mind at work. The interview was in no way condescending.
They took a decision right there and it was a no hire. But I loved the experience. It was no BS interview.
First round, I had to do 2 coding questions in an hour, 30 mins for each question. I had to go to their campus. They would give me a laptop/environment of my choice and then time starts. Questions were very easy, so the expectation was reasonable.
Second round on On-site was two interviews: Director of engineering asked me why certain piece of C code was behaving in a certain way. I could not answer, but we compiled the code into Assembly and tried to understand the behavior. An hour later, the CTO of the company, Ken Duda, walked in and he asked me an Object Oriented question and some of my past projects. Really drilled me. He gave very simple design of same projects. Very educative and amazed to see a brilliant mind at work. The interview was in no way condescending.
They took a decision right there and it was a no hire. But I loved the experience. It was no BS interview.
I had a similar experience with Arista Networks in Bangalore. Only I managed to get an offer and I've been with the company for a little over 2.5 years. And it's not just the interviews, we're a no-BS company in general.
P.S. We are hiring.
P.S. We are hiring.
Debug code behavior using assembly? And deep OOP knowledge? And architecture? They better pay in gold bricks.
> Debug code behavior using assembly?
Do you have a better way of understanding why a peice of C/C++ code is doing something unexpected?
> And deep OOP knowledge? And architecture?
You know, the things you need a good grip on to engineer software.
> They better pay in gold bricks.
No, they just pay me in Rupees and RSUs. Gold bricks sound inconvenient.
Do you have a better way of understanding why a peice of C/C++ code is doing something unexpected?
> And deep OOP knowledge? And architecture?
You know, the things you need a good grip on to engineer software.
> They better pay in gold bricks.
No, they just pay me in Rupees and RSUs. Gold bricks sound inconvenient.
Years ago, I interviewed at redgate (an interview I actually got via HN!). I will never forget it, I was very junior, but I never felt looked down upon, I had nice conversation with the interviewers, and it always felt natural. The technical part was looking at a small game code and just walking through it what it does, how it could be tested, improved or fixed.
It all felt comfortable and not "quizzy". I didn't get the job, but I got back a lot of very specific and encouraging feedback that really inspired me in my career, and I will be forever grateful.
My takeaway was, treat candidates as people that deserve respect and time, rather than churning through them.
It all felt comfortable and not "quizzy". I didn't get the job, but I got back a lot of very specific and encouraging feedback that really inspired me in my career, and I will be forever grateful.
My takeaway was, treat candidates as people that deserve respect and time, rather than churning through them.
GitLab. I didn't get the job. But the experience was great. The take home was reasonable (~1hr). The technical screening was based on talking about the take home and creating unit tests. And we had a Zoom meeting to talk about feedback on what they thought I could work on to improve.
My first interview, as a self taught 19 year old high school dropout. I got asked what "ifconfig" did, how Ethernet works at a very high level, which languages I knew, and got hired.
Then I got put on a crash course of Solaris and vim (with the mentorship of a literal UNIX greybeard) and sent fixing bugs at customers' sites. One month later another young colleague and I were sent to teach the basics of Linux networking to a class of enlisted recruits in the Italian Army. Quite the experience, and highly reckless strategy for a consulting company, but you tend to learn pretty quickly if you're eager to.
The hoops I gotta go through 16 years later to get a consulting gig are just ridiculous.
Then I got put on a crash course of Solaris and vim (with the mentorship of a literal UNIX greybeard) and sent fixing bugs at customers' sites. One month later another young colleague and I were sent to teach the basics of Linux networking to a class of enlisted recruits in the Italian Army. Quite the experience, and highly reckless strategy for a consulting company, but you tend to learn pretty quickly if you're eager to.
The hoops I gotta go through 16 years later to get a consulting gig are just ridiculous.
Honesty if they vetted the candidates correctly and that greybeard was available for "trial period" damage control of new employee fuckups, I think it's a great method of running a consulting firm.
Trial by fire with the appropriate subject matter experts standing by is a great way to quickly broaden the broader talent pool in a sustainable way, while turning a profit on the free hands-on training being afforded to the new blood.
In a traditional organization you aren't afforded the sheer variability in deployments or pace of work afforded by consulting, so hiring someone completely green usually isn't the best exchange, even if the in-house expertise is available to provide the proper mentorship.
Maybe this is just me wishing I had a similar opportunity (or even just mentorship) but I would love to see this as more commonplace.
Trial by fire with the appropriate subject matter experts standing by is a great way to quickly broaden the broader talent pool in a sustainable way, while turning a profit on the free hands-on training being afforded to the new blood.
In a traditional organization you aren't afforded the sheer variability in deployments or pace of work afforded by consulting, so hiring someone completely green usually isn't the best exchange, even if the in-house expertise is available to provide the proper mentorship.
Maybe this is just me wishing I had a similar opportunity (or even just mentorship) but I would love to see this as more commonplace.
A few months ago I had a pleasant technical interview with Snowflake.
First, the interviewer was very supportive and cooperative, it felt almost like a friendly talk between two colleagues. He did not try to outsmart me or catch on some tricky detail.
Also, the questions were very good - we discussed how to build a distributed data processing system, a very relevant and on the right level for the position I applied (Engineering Manager).
First, the interviewer was very supportive and cooperative, it felt almost like a friendly talk between two colleagues. He did not try to outsmart me or catch on some tricky detail.
Also, the questions were very good - we discussed how to build a distributed data processing system, a very relevant and on the right level for the position I applied (Engineering Manager).
When I interviewed for my current job, I asked the HR rep and the hiring manager if they were happy working at the company. The question seemed to surprise them. Both smiled, thought for a moment, then responded positively, with some details about why they enjoyed their jobs and this company. That was 11 years ago and we're all still here.
In a previous life, I was a mechanical engineer and interviewed at an engine research company. I know a lot about engines but the three engineers interviewing me were world experts. Format was me standing in front of a whiteboard and the panel firing questions at me, picking apart my answers and bottoming out my knowledge.
It was all very high stress with questions and answers going back and forth. There was a long pause which was broken by one of the engineers asking: "Do you drink beer?"
I didn't get the job.
It was all very high stress with questions and answers going back and forth. There was a long pause which was broken by one of the engineers asking: "Do you drink beer?"
I didn't get the job.
The interviews I've enjoyed most were the ones where the interviewer and I got to chat about some technical project in depth. For my last job switch, one of the interview rounds was specifically about a project I had worked on and the interviewer that round just asked me to go into how things worked, why design decisions were made the way they were, what the constraints were, etc. Implicit in the whole whiteboarding thing is a subtle accusation that you can't actually do what you claim you can do; this interview instead hinged on the idea that I had done this and that there would be better insight into my work if it was specific and historical, rather than palely rehashing an algorithms class. It also helped a ton that the interviewer seemed genuinely interested in talking about the project, so the whole thing felt much closer to a conversation than a performance.
Google was pleasant. Everyone was very professional. Their coding questions were unique, yet they all were needing a very straight forward CS 101 algorithm and data structures. Nothing tricky, but I did have to think about the problem for a few minutes to have the insight that it wasn’t tricky.
A lot of software engineering is finding the simple solution in what looks like a hard problem, and I thought their questions simulated that well.
Their design questions were pretty standard but it was a good back and forth conversation, not an interrogation. It seems clear that google gives everyone at least some training on how to conduct good interviews.
A lot of software engineering is finding the simple solution in what looks like a hard problem, and I thought their questions simulated that well.
Their design questions were pretty standard but it was a good back and forth conversation, not an interrogation. It seems clear that google gives everyone at least some training on how to conduct good interviews.
I’ve also enjoyed various interviews at Google. But their overall process is ridiculous.
right, 100%. I interviewed in July and still haven't gotten an offer, though I passed the hiring committee. Overall their interview process is maybe the worst of all time, but their interviews were the best IMO.
Note: I’m not a fan of Facebook. I didn’t get the role after the on-site.
Facebook for a data science role. Professional, relevant, fun. Edit: this was 2017, Menlo Park.
They evaluated multiple skills, from relevant behavioral type questions, to relevant technical questions.
Interviewers were engaged, smart, never arrogant, and I recall them asking questions about my resume that no one else asked about.
The feedback for not extending an offer was fair, and I think I even agreed with it actually.
And they were the only ones who gave me swag - and it was cool swag.
Looking back, it was one of the most professional experiences in my life. I will add, such experiences are not typical.
Facebook for a data science role. Professional, relevant, fun. Edit: this was 2017, Menlo Park.
They evaluated multiple skills, from relevant behavioral type questions, to relevant technical questions.
Interviewers were engaged, smart, never arrogant, and I recall them asking questions about my resume that no one else asked about.
The feedback for not extending an offer was fair, and I think I even agreed with it actually.
And they were the only ones who gave me swag - and it was cool swag.
Looking back, it was one of the most professional experiences in my life. I will add, such experiences are not typical.
Copy+paste from my comment three weeks ago in another thread on here. It got 24 points at the time[1], so I think other people thought it was an example of an enjoyable interview as well. This was for a job for a game development studio that had about 30 employees at the time:
"They asked me to bring in a code sample, we discussed what it did and various details around it, then he showed me an actual class in their codebase (printed out), asked me to explain figure out and explain everything it did, and there was also a couple mistakes included in the code for me to find as well. The guy also asked me a few relatively simple technical questions, then said "Okay I know you can handle the job, let's see what you really know," asked me some really difficult questions, when I said "I don't know" to some he actually spent a few minutes teaching me the concepts.
That same guy was the lead programmer on some famous arcade games, btw. Did a lot of assembly programming back in the day. He had serious technical chops.
Got a job offer the next day. 1 interview, 1 interviewer, a little over 30 minutes spent.
Best interview experience I ever had. If more interviews were like that I wouldn't feel dread every time I felt the urge to switch jobs."
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32437818
"They asked me to bring in a code sample, we discussed what it did and various details around it, then he showed me an actual class in their codebase (printed out), asked me to explain figure out and explain everything it did, and there was also a couple mistakes included in the code for me to find as well. The guy also asked me a few relatively simple technical questions, then said "Okay I know you can handle the job, let's see what you really know," asked me some really difficult questions, when I said "I don't know" to some he actually spent a few minutes teaching me the concepts.
That same guy was the lead programmer on some famous arcade games, btw. Did a lot of assembly programming back in the day. He had serious technical chops.
Got a job offer the next day. 1 interview, 1 interviewer, a little over 30 minutes spent.
Best interview experience I ever had. If more interviews were like that I wouldn't feel dread every time I felt the urge to switch jobs."
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32437818
For a job at a small new game studio, first there was a slightly technical but mostly informal chat with a Director of Engineering where he asked me about things from my resume and my website (I keep a blog where I write about side projects). I love when interviewers take the time to look at my website and ask me about it because I can talk about that stuff all day.
Then they gave me an assignment to build a particle system. They provided a rendering framework and then I wrote the code to generate the particles. It was so much fun that I spent a lot of time on it. The follow-up was a panel with four engineers and we just went over my particle system code where they asked me about my reasoning for certain design choices, possible edge cases, etc.
It was all very positive and I got the job.
I much prefer the code review style of interview because I'm not good at writing code or problem solving while someone is watching. I've never been offered a job that had any sort of coding/whiteboarding component. My brain often presents novel solutions to complex problems at 2AM after I've slept on it, or during a walk around the block, and that sort of thinking isn't exemplified well in many technical interview scenarios. Talking about code I've already written is much closer.
Then they gave me an assignment to build a particle system. They provided a rendering framework and then I wrote the code to generate the particles. It was so much fun that I spent a lot of time on it. The follow-up was a panel with four engineers and we just went over my particle system code where they asked me about my reasoning for certain design choices, possible edge cases, etc.
It was all very positive and I got the job.
I much prefer the code review style of interview because I'm not good at writing code or problem solving while someone is watching. I've never been offered a job that had any sort of coding/whiteboarding component. My brain often presents novel solutions to complex problems at 2AM after I've slept on it, or during a walk around the block, and that sort of thinking isn't exemplified well in many technical interview scenarios. Talking about code I've already written is much closer.
DynaTrace, in Vienna.
No leetcode, no whiteboarding, no nonsense. Just a 5 minute recruiter screen, and then two nice ~90 minutes each conversations about the technologies I've used, projects I've contributed to, opinions/approaches, asking me to explain how the stuff I use actually works, etc.
Ended up not working out due to a hiring freeze, but their interviews were refreshing, and I think they got all the information they needed without having to do any of the usual annoying stuff.
No leetcode, no whiteboarding, no nonsense. Just a 5 minute recruiter screen, and then two nice ~90 minutes each conversations about the technologies I've used, projects I've contributed to, opinions/approaches, asking me to explain how the stuff I use actually works, etc.
Ended up not working out due to a hiring freeze, but their interviews were refreshing, and I think they got all the information they needed without having to do any of the usual annoying stuff.
I've always done tons of side projects, it's a result of trying to build small lifestyle companies. So I'm biased towards any interviewer that hones in on any of the projects and takes interest in hearing about the story. I as well hone in on any particular side projects, especially any that are "real" ie generate money, or is on the appstore or has users.
Although it feels kind of rigid, I appreciate structured questions. I've heard that you should keep the format objective and ask things in the exact same way in order to avoid subjectivity. So when I interview others, I usually have around 8 very structured questions that I ask and then it goes onto the actual coding part. It makes it easier and more fair to compare later. Of course end of the day, apparently nobody can pick performers from an interview as proved by google so maybe it's all just to make ourselves feel better
Any job that doesn't ghost you and even better, give you a specific break down of what you could improve on. I remember doing a takehome where the prompt said there would be a leaderboard and was written with a peppy fun attitude to sell the competition. I got really excited to see how I did compared to others and they just never replied back.
Although it feels kind of rigid, I appreciate structured questions. I've heard that you should keep the format objective and ask things in the exact same way in order to avoid subjectivity. So when I interview others, I usually have around 8 very structured questions that I ask and then it goes onto the actual coding part. It makes it easier and more fair to compare later. Of course end of the day, apparently nobody can pick performers from an interview as proved by google so maybe it's all just to make ourselves feel better
Any job that doesn't ghost you and even better, give you a specific break down of what you could improve on. I remember doing a takehome where the prompt said there would be a leaderboard and was written with a peppy fun attitude to sell the competition. I got really excited to see how I did compared to others and they just never replied back.
I have enjoyed all my interviews I had in Sweden, and disliked all my interviews in US.
The typical process in Sweden is to just talk with the HM about a past project or your experience, no leetcode, no bs. Then you have another call with HR when they tell you if you got the job or not.
Typical process in US: Intro call with recruiter: 30 minutes
Technical screening: 3-4h, design questions and leetcode
HM interview: Asks you to walk them through your resume one more time, asks behavioural questions like, "Tell me about a time you had an disagreement with a collegue".
Followup call with recruiter: They will inform you that they are working on an offer
Offer call: You got the job!
No wonder it's hard to find good developers in the US, who got the time to go through a process like this unless you are unemployed?
The typical process in Sweden is to just talk with the HM about a past project or your experience, no leetcode, no bs. Then you have another call with HR when they tell you if you got the job or not.
Typical process in US: Intro call with recruiter: 30 minutes
Technical screening: 3-4h, design questions and leetcode
HM interview: Asks you to walk them through your resume one more time, asks behavioural questions like, "Tell me about a time you had an disagreement with a collegue".
Followup call with recruiter: They will inform you that they are working on an offer
Offer call: You got the job!
No wonder it's hard to find good developers in the US, who got the time to go through a process like this unless you are unemployed?
[deleted]
Had en hour interview booked for a devops position, was greeted by company founder and no one else. Made it clear that I did not want to change jobs atm due to personal reasons, still sat through entire interview and joked about nerd stuff like automation and programming. Great guy.
A startup. Got a phone call asking if I was coming in. I forgot about the interview and apologized (I'm extremely disorganized). They asked would i like to come in the next day. I went for it making sure not to forget this time. The interview was a walk to the coffeeshop and a talk about tech which is something I can talk about endlessly. They were very small and didn't have enough senior expertise. One of the topics was the resources they were using for how many clients they had. It didn't make sense and I diagnosed that they probably didn't have the indexes setup for their db use cases correctly (they didn't even know what a db index was and had very basic sql knowledge). I started the job there and then and I was right about the lack of db indexes.
They say startups should hire those with flaws who can otherwise do the job since startups can't compete with big tech on pay. Between the mobile device apps I made for them, the database optimizations which saved them a fortune in aws rds fees, moving them off a $100k/year image/video processing service to an aws scaled jobs service that cost a fraction of that I think I did a pretty good job.
The lesson here is probably one for the interviewers. You may be looking for red flags that allow you to rule someone right out. You might want someone that's followed the same path you did and has the same bubble of knowledge. But you're going to miss a chance at a new perspective. That's also the risk with a formal interview process in general. All those who pass will have a similar set of traits. Maybe that's desired but maybe it's also a negative.
Having said all of that shortly after that startup job I moved into big tech where I've been ever since (albeit in different big tech roles - I have a personal goal to work at all the FAANG for at least a few years). I have no trouble with the big tech interviews, yes they take at least a week of solid study beforehand which is a pain but there's no issue getting through them if you're willing to do that. I still think the informal coffee chat interview allows for more diverse hiring though.
They say startups should hire those with flaws who can otherwise do the job since startups can't compete with big tech on pay. Between the mobile device apps I made for them, the database optimizations which saved them a fortune in aws rds fees, moving them off a $100k/year image/video processing service to an aws scaled jobs service that cost a fraction of that I think I did a pretty good job.
The lesson here is probably one for the interviewers. You may be looking for red flags that allow you to rule someone right out. You might want someone that's followed the same path you did and has the same bubble of knowledge. But you're going to miss a chance at a new perspective. That's also the risk with a formal interview process in general. All those who pass will have a similar set of traits. Maybe that's desired but maybe it's also a negative.
Having said all of that shortly after that startup job I moved into big tech where I've been ever since (albeit in different big tech roles - I have a personal goal to work at all the FAANG for at least a few years). I have no trouble with the big tech interviews, yes they take at least a week of solid study beforehand which is a pain but there's no issue getting through them if you're willing to do that. I still think the informal coffee chat interview allows for more diverse hiring though.
Damn you just reminded me of a coffee date interview. you're absoultely right. They can pick out green flags that the red flag filters would reject.
The interview was for a startup. I ended up rejecting the offer due to my fear of stability at startups, but it was one of the, if not, best interview i've ever had. The screening stage was great, talked with the recruiter about the job, work, etc. The Online Assessment was great too, instead of solving Leetcode, it was me solving FE problems. During the onsite interview, instead of them asking me leetcode questions, it was me explaining a personal project I've done and I was excited and loved this since I get to show off something I was passionate about. One the greatest interviews, and I wish them best in the future.
Some guy gave me a solid run down on functional programming. I knew it roughly, but the way he guided the questions was very didactic. I left the interview having learned something.
Didn’t care if they’d hire me or not, that interview was a free lesson.
Didn’t care if they’d hire me or not, that interview was a free lesson.
I was doing a phone interview with three software engineers and one of the founders (he was in charge of sales) was on the call. This was a second round interview and they had just begun asking me a couple of technical questions when the founder chimes in and says "Wow, I love it! You're hired!" The engineers tried to argue that they had just begun the interview, but the founder had already hung up so they just said, "Ok, well, see you on Monday I guess..."
Best interview was:
- technical questions were all async via email and the application
- typical interview questions were mostly async via email
- all interviews were culture fit
- I was informed of deadlines and next step at every step of the way
- The interviews were conversations
- technical questions were all async via email and the application
- typical interview questions were mostly async via email
- all interviews were culture fit
- I was informed of deadlines and next step at every step of the way
- The interviews were conversations
My current job gave me the best process I ever had.
- quick call with CTO for screening (10 min)
- technical interview live with CTO and coworker, not hard, just some questions about tech I've used (nothing on what they use that I didn't know about, except maybe "do you know X ?" "no" "ok fine")
- technical homework, again only on stuff I know (you can skip what you don't know), maximum 3h and if you only want to do 1h you can and they'll judge you on that basis (I did the full 3h)
- culture fit interview with the customer success then the CEO (30 min each)
- quick call with CTO for screening (10 min)
- technical interview live with CTO and coworker, not hard, just some questions about tech I've used (nothing on what they use that I didn't know about, except maybe "do you know X ?" "no" "ok fine")
- technical homework, again only on stuff I know (you can skip what you don't know), maximum 3h and if you only want to do 1h you can and they'll judge you on that basis (I did the full 3h)
- culture fit interview with the customer success then the CEO (30 min each)
Had an amazing experience with OpenComp (disclaimer, I accepted the offer).
First conversation with the recruiter was very straightforward and included salary ranges from the very start.
First round was coding with real life examples for data structures/algorithms, frontend and backend/SQL
next conversation was with PMs where I got the learn more about the product and company culture.
Next was an offer.
I was interviewing with two other companies at the time but OpenComp blew them out of the water with how straightforward they were.
First conversation with the recruiter was very straightforward and included salary ranges from the very start.
First round was coding with real life examples for data structures/algorithms, frontend and backend/SQL
next conversation was with PMs where I got the learn more about the product and company culture.
Next was an offer.
I was interviewing with two other companies at the time but OpenComp blew them out of the water with how straightforward they were.
I interviewed at Amazon, and while it was a long day with lots of questions, everyone I spoke with was great.
I am not a developer but had to do a code assessment and the interviewer was very patient with my pseudo code and likely novice algorithms.
In the end I didn’t get an offer but everyone was great and learning about the work they had done as well the job I was interviewing for was a lot of fun
I am not a developer but had to do a code assessment and the interviewer was very patient with my pseudo code and likely novice algorithms.
In the end I didn’t get an offer but everyone was great and learning about the work they had done as well the job I was interviewing for was a lot of fun
ThoughtWorks, San Francisco. Sold me on the job by showing me how they work and the principles that guide the work. Still a fan.
Netflix. They didn't make code as a manager and focused on leadership, cross functional partner collaboration, and building teams.
Recharge Payments (software engineer)
Very practical interviews all the way through. No one even mentioned linked lists/binary trees.
Very practical interviews all the way through. No one even mentioned linked lists/binary trees.
My current company was pretty good. I knew a cofounder so they sent me an offer.
Everything is fair game here, whether it was the process, the setting, the people, the format, a particular question that was asked or anything else that made this interview stand out to you in a positive manner. It doesn't have to be limited to getting a job in tech either.