Rock the Tech Interview

Today, Infusion held a talk in Columbia University about tech interview.

Talker: Nishit Shah @ Infusion, Techinical Account Manager, Dev -> Team Lead -> Manager

3 Real Questions

Smart?

Gets Things Done?

Fit the team?

The Introductions

Tell me about yourself?

Tell me about your last job?

Goal: First Impression + Attitude

Highlight positives from prior roles; things you learned, or unique experiences.

Keep it to 1 minute!

CS Fundamentals

OOP Fundamentals

Data Structure/ Memory Management

Multithreading/ Concurrent Programming

Coding Best Practices

Databases

Goals: Measure experience, aptitude

Access breadth and depth - find gaps

Do not memorize definitions and read out! Provide examples, not just definitions!

Cite bult-in examples from major frameworks.

Show you understand/ have used it.

Don't go overboard! (brevity is beautify)

- "Why"/ "How does"
- Can you give me an example?

- How have you applied this in a project?

- What happens if...

OOP Fundamentals

"What is Object Oriented Programming?"

Polymorphism

Overload vs Override

Abstarct Classes

Interfaces

Access Modifiers

Static, Final, Read only

Constructors & Destructors

Data Structures

Array[], ArrayList

HashMap

...

Memory Management

Scopes

Struct vs Classes

Pass By Value vs Pass By Referrence

Stack vs Heap

Pointers vs Referrences

Garbage Collector

Disposable pattern/ using scopes

Multithreading/ Concurrent Programming

Treads vs Processes

Async, wait, notify, sleep

Context Switching

Race conditions, deadlock

Locks/ Mutexes/ Semaphores

Coding Best Practices

Exception Handling

Logging

Source Control

Commenting

Naming Conventions

Testing

Debugging

Build Management

Databases

Schema Design/ Normalization

Select Statements

　　Joins

　　Aggregate Funcs/ Group By

Transactions/ ACID
Tables vs Views

Stored Procedures

ORMs

Algorithms & Problem Solving

Measuring Aptitude:

　　Applying what ou know

　　Solving "new" problems

"Hands On" vs Theory: Whiteboarding, writing codes

Thought Process & Reasoning

Communication

Tips:

"Right" matters less than thought process.

Talk your way through the problem.

Break it down. State/ clarify assumptions

Draw/ write it out: visualize your logic.

BUT "knowing the answer" isn't the point, you need to be able to explain it!

Get started; how quickly you can solve matters.

Write out pseudo code/ comments.

State assumptions, think about corner cases.

Example:s

9 balls, same size, 8 are the same weight. Find heavy ball using a balance in the least number of weighings.

Do you have any questions for me?

Tips:

Know what factor you're looking for in a job/ company.

Skip "administrative" questions; (ask the recruiter)

Show you've done your homework

　　Know the company

　　Know the interviewer

Example:

1. Everyone seems friendly and energetic - can you tell me more about the culture?

2. How do you support continual learning for your employees, especially new grads?

3. I was really impressed with XXX<case study>. What have been some of your favorite projects?

4. What do you see as the near term challenges and long term opportunities of this role/ position?

5. Do you have any feedback on how today went?