Sameh Sharaf
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read

Thank you for this article. Now I know better what the hell is going on with today’s tech interviews.

I have done multiple interviews in the past three months and they were almost always the same: They send you a ‘Codility’ test to solve 2–3 problems in 100–150 minutes. I kept practicing it for a long time I could easily pass most of the tests. Then, an ‘introductory interview’ which will be a simple one-question interview that the interviewer will keep asking about, without asking you about any prior projects, what positions did you do or even knowing what your tasks in your current job are. He already has the answer on paper which if it doesn’t match 99% of your solution, you are out. They don’t care about your mindset. They don’t care about how did you reach this solution. They don’t care what you are trying to elaborate while coding within those 45 minutes. They just want the final answer.

I remember when I did the interview for my current job. The interview was a combination of my previous jobs, my past projects I worked on, and about 5–10 technical questions related to the job position I applied for. I surely didn’t answer all the questions correctly, but at least it was a chance to show that I can at least share thoughts and reach some answers with logical thinking.

Now, interviews are so lazy and ‘academic.’ Just prepare one or two technical questions from an algorithms and data structure coursebook which the interviewee may never heard about and throw him to their face asking them to FULLY implement them within 45 minutes and lay back until the time’s up. If he could solve it like how it is written on your paper then send him to the next round where your coworker will do the exact same process but with different question and maybe with lower time complexity required.

This is lazy, this is bad, that’s not how it should work. So now my whole experience is evaluated by solving a problem I took in college 10 years ago?

But hey, I am glad I found your article so I can play by their rules and study those 20–30 toy problems by heart and re-apply, because that’s what the industry needs now!