Insane Developer Interview Questions

Oct 17

Every time I’ve gone through the interview merry-go-round I’ve felt disappointed. Not just through the lack of a job at the end of a gruelling interview process, but through the nonsensical interview questions that I’ve been asked.

So here they are. Line them up. The worst interview questions I’ve ever been asked in my software development career.

Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10

This could be phrased as “Rate yourself in Java on a scale of 10”.

When I got asked this I pushed for more information. What is the cohort? What would be a 10? Is the comparison group where I work or against the worldwide population (of programmers and non-programmers).

The answer from the interviewer was disappointing. The interviewer repeated the question “Score yourself out of 10” and told me to “answer as you see fit”.

Why It’s Insane: A developer doesn’t have the perspective to rate themselves. The question doesn’t tell the interviewer anything as the scale isn’t calibrated.

Did They Offer A Raise When You Left?

In a cultural fit interview, the interviewer went through my resume job by job. For each one, he asked if when I resigned, they gave a counter-offer.

So, did I get a counter-offer? Not for the first couple of jobs. Then we got to my old, unionized Government job. When you’re on a salary scale a counter-offer is not possible, to the extent it might be illegal.

I told the interviewer this. They kept pushing. Surely, they offered you something to stay? No, they wouldn’t be able to. In the end, I told the interviewer I could prove what I was saying was true and could forward links to show this. They didn’t want the proof and eventually, we moved on. After the interview, I actually cried because the interviewer simply wouldn’t back down.

Why It’s Insane: They didn’t take into account the situation. I argued with the interviewer. I still got a job offer and still accepted it.

That time I told the interviewer that I already knew the problem

“I sat at an interview and got the famous 25 horses problem cribbed from Google. In my prep for the interview, I’d actually solved this puzzle.

I told the interviewers that I knew how to solve the problem from my prep. They said it didn’t matter as they wanted to ‘see how you think’.

Of course, I retrieved the answers from my medium-term memory and passed that stage of the interview. I still didn’t get the job, but I passed that question with ease.

Why It’s Insane: I had a great number of interview questions memorized in my early career. It got me several great jobs, despite the fact that I was gaming the process — how is this allowed to happen?

That time I didn’t Remember How to Implement a Heap and then sat silently for 15 minutes

In this interview, I couldn’t remember anything other than I needed to implement a heap. I told the interviewers that without some hints we were not going to be able to progress with a solution.

They wouldn’t give any.

We sat for 15 minutes, during which I said “I can’t do it. Can you give me some help” and they never did.

I still have no idea why they didn’t release me to go home.

Why It’s Insane: It wasn’t just awkward. It made me feel like I should quit being a software engineer altogether.”

And That Time I Dealt A Cruel Blow to the Interviewer

I’m capable of controlling a conversation and the space of any chat we might have.

I had an interview where we didn’t really gel. Worse, this interviewer didn’t really lead the interview beyond asking boilerplate trivia questions.

So, when it came to my opportunity to ask questions, I asked one. We were coming up to the end of the time for the interview, and when he finished speaking I….let……him….hang. It isn’t for me to say the time is up. It isn’t for me to just ask another question unprompted. It’s his interview to run, and I let him do it. A more awkward 15 seconds I don’t think I’ve felt. I caused that.

Why It’s Insane: This is just one example of a senior developer who can’t lead an interview. I know there is no training for interviewing but come on. We can’t all be this bad at interviews and yet have no HR support?

Conclusion

Interviewers could be better, but I could be better too. I’m reflective about what happened in these instances, but since the companies never asked for feedback from me, I guess they aren’t — to their disadvantage.

The Secret Developer