Preparing For The Coding Interview
Austin Hispanic Hackers held their second coding interview practice session. This go round HomeAway sponsored the event held at Capital Factory. The Hispanic Hackers community describes the process of getting a job in technology like this:
The whiteboard coding interview as often (for better or worse) the typical rite of passage most developers have to overcome to land that nice job. If you’ve never done it before, it can be pretty nerve-racking- you must stand before a whiteboard and solve a programming challenge on the spot before a scrutinizing audience, and without a computer to help you.
First event,(hacking the coding interview) featured four brave souls who stepped up to the whiteboard in a safe environment to have their skills tested. This round, over ten people signed up vying for a interview session at the whiteboard.
This event included 6 whiteboards, 6 interviewers, and 10 interviewees rotating around the room answering interview problems ranging from: Implement a stack data structure, add ways to find the min/Max value in the stack. After implementing, tell me what are the performance characteristics of each operation.
Joe Magdaleno, Director of Engineering — Revenue Management at HomeAway participated as a interviewer. When asked what Joe thought about the event, he said..
“ I really like what this group is doing for the new coding workforce and preparing them for what’s next in their careers.”
The University of Texas has a coding bootcamp, which several students attended for the exposure and experience of problem solving at the whiteboard. Serena Nguyen, a student currently enrolled in UT’s coding bootcamp class feedback on the event was “ The event was extremely informative and I’m looking forward to future meet-ups.”
The Hispanic Hackers approach to teaching their community how to problem solve and prepare for real world situations within the tech industry has attracted the interests of tech companies such as HomeAway, actively searching for more diverse talent to add to their organization.
Hispanic Hackers meetup’s are held the second week of the month at Capital Factory. Next event will focus on hacking the entrepreneurs pitch.
