Dumb questions. Good sys admin interview questions shouldn't ask about specifics like "what is the command that does x" or anything that can be easily looked up in a manual. Rather they should quiz depth of knowledge of the Linux (if that's what its for) ecosystem.
I had some good questions posed to me during a Google DevOps interview, though I have trouble remembering what specifically they were about, I do remember that they were of a much more "holistic" and general bent. Instead of asking me to provide irrelevant details (i.e what are the switches for ls that list time oldest to newest) that are easily forgotten, they would pose a problem that seemed to have an easy and obvious solution and then make the problem more and more esoteric and difficult to solve.
These were the sysadmin trouble shooting problems and I found them quite interesting because they directly related to my experience and opinion that sysadmin trouble shooting is unfortunately sometimes quite complex and involves less an understanding of command syntax and more of a problem solving mindset.
Another point to take away is that if the interview is about linux, it should test fundamental linux things linux things such as testing the candidate's understanding of linux process management and signals. Perhaps filesystems as well.
My take away point is not that I think the FB interview was overly easy, but rather that it asks useless questions. This interview isn't looking for the sysadmin mindset at all.
I had some good questions posed to me during a Google DevOps interview, though I have trouble remembering what specifically they were about, I do remember that they were of a much more "holistic" and general bent. Instead of asking me to provide irrelevant details (i.e what are the switches for ls that list time oldest to newest) that are easily forgotten, they would pose a problem that seemed to have an easy and obvious solution and then make the problem more and more esoteric and difficult to solve.
These were the sysadmin trouble shooting problems and I found them quite interesting because they directly related to my experience and opinion that sysadmin trouble shooting is unfortunately sometimes quite complex and involves less an understanding of command syntax and more of a problem solving mindset.
Another point to take away is that if the interview is about linux, it should test fundamental linux things linux things such as testing the candidate's understanding of linux process management and signals. Perhaps filesystems as well.
My take away point is not that I think the FB interview was overly easy, but rather that it asks useless questions. This interview isn't looking for the sysadmin mindset at all.