Ask HN: Interview advice

2 points by ianl 14 years ago | 3 comments

Hello HN,

I have recently completed my bachelors degree and have started interviewing, however, I am having a hard time with phone interviews that require you to code.

I seem to get very flustered and cannot think properly and therefore under perform greatly during the phone interview+coding stage of the interview process. I get stuck on a question with a mental block and after the interview is often I immediately think of the perfect solution. I'm not use to having what feels like someone breathing behind my back watching me code.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

lukesandberg 14 years ago |

Practice!

Coding in an interview is unlike any kind of programming you have probably done so it's only natural to freak out a little. Personally the whole exercise of writing code not on a computer is bizarre enough on its own!

Find some problems that you might expect to be asked and then actually code them up on a white board or at least with a pen and paper. Bonus points for getting a friend to ask you questions.

here's a nice looooong blog post basically saying the same thing: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-goog...

ianl 14 years ago | |

Thanks for the link and reading. I do a lot of coding and have many projects I work on.

Was also curious, do they expect you to know right away, as I usually have a more iterative style right away. I guess what i'm asking is what are the protocols or whats established norms for these interviews? No one has ever really explained to me what they want.

lukesandberg 14 years ago | | |

Iterative is definitely the way to go, and it's the way you are (generally) expected to answer a question. If you are asked a question a good first approach is almost always to describe the simplest/dumbest solution you can and then iterate to a better one.

The whole point of the coding interview is to ensure that 1. you actually know how to code and 2. that you have reasonable problem solving skills. By iteratively approaching the problem you demonstrate your problem solving and communication skills. Also a good interviewer will usually structure a problem so that you have to approach it iteratively because they keep adding restrictions/requirements after each time you solve it.