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Discussion on: DISCUSS: Technical Interview Horror Stories

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sunflowerseed • Edited

I have one: the startup company wanted to hire me, and they have me talk to the Scrum master as well, just getting to know each other.

The Scrum master asked me something from the textbook, and the solution that was refined over the years was like 3, 4 lines long. I think I had 5 or 6 lines, same time complexity O(n), and the first time I wrote it, I was considering all the cases and I forgot to increment i.

That usually is not a big deal, as I fixed it within 30 seconds, just added i++ at the end of the while loop. Most capable programmers will not see it as really an issue.

But the Scrum master highlighted it, saying that I wrote code that "caused an infinite loop", and therefore is doubtful about my programming skills.

And I can say, I was writing machine code and assembly, when that person was wearing a diaper.

But anyway, his feedback was also circulated to the CEO and the COO, and that company didn't want to hire me as a full time employee, but instead wanted to hire me as a contractor to "try out", until 3 or 6 months later. In the past it was true, it could be the developer that barely got out of college for 2 years, and they are the ones giving me the most trouble in terms of giving any feedback. Some companies have a rule that everybody has to "thumb up" before they can make a hire, so I think I won't have any luck with interviewers like this.