Technical interviews in the US compared to the UK

I don't know where you've interviewed in the UK, but the type the of interviews you've described in the US are pretty much the standard in the UK at major tech companies and in the financial sector.

The purpose of questions such as reversing a linked list is to test your understanding of fairly fundamental computer science, to see if you're someone who understands the technology you're using or if you treat it as a black box. For more technical companies they need people who fall into the first category hence ask that type of question.

The theory behind the technical questions is not whether you can reverse a linked list, but rather:

  -Do you know basic computer science concepts
  -How are your problem-solving skills
  -Can you move beyond "obvious, yet flawed" answers
  -Do you exhibit passion (passion to get to the right answer, enjoyment of problem solving, etc)
  -Can you present and justify solutions
  -Integrity (If you've seen the problem before, tell the interviewer, don't 'fake solve' it!)
  -Are you thorough (probing to understand problem, handling error cases, boundary cases, etc)
  -Can you communicate/collaborate with the interviewer

Anyway, that's the theory. In reality, many interviewers use whiteboard questions as a crutch to an easy interview loop and don't really understand why they're asking what they're asking.

My biggest piece of advice is to remember the technical interview isn't just (or even mostly) about the technical aspect. Communicate constantly, verbalize your thoughts, ask questions, show passion. I've hired plenty of people who have done not-so-well at the technical portion, and I've given a 'no hire' to plenty who have aced the technical portion.

Hello, I´m European as well, and I often thought about doing something similar (i.e. moving to US for a period of time looking for work). I have already been in Silicon Valley for an internship (with a researcher visa) years ago and loved the place, but I always thought that getting a working Visa would be hard, since the company basically has to petition for your visa and pay all the associated legal expenses.

In your experience then, is it something that can be done (I guess so given that you had 3 interviews already).? Or do companies gives you a hard time if you don´t have a work permit to start with ?

Thanks.

I've interviewed people in the US, and the first time I asked candidates to reverse a linked list, I was shocked by the results.

Candidate A had a long track record of success, at least on paper. He was obviously motivated, responsible, and likable. He had done a lot of hardware work, and claimed to be a decent (but not top-notch) C programmer.

Candidate B was straight out of college, and he had a weak résumé. We suspected that he had some coding talent, but he didn't have much experience, and we had no idea whether or not he was reliable.

We were leaning heavily towards candidate A. He interviewed brilliantly and seemed like a good fit. Then I asked him to reverse a linked list, and he responded, "Do you have a copy of K&R? I don't remember what kind of braces C uses for functions." After about 30 minutes, he was still trying and failing to find a solution.

When I asked the same question to candidate B, he shrugged, and wrote out a correct solution without stopping to think. So we hired candidate B, and he did excellent work for us for years.

And this is not a one-time incident. It's amazing how many people can bluff their way through an interview without knowing how to sum the numbers in an array. Résumés are full of lies, phone screens are hard to do well, and references are hand-picked by the candidate. So I'm a big believer in coding questions.

Ive laughed at these type of questions and told them "How 90's of you". Of course I work in a more entrepreneurial field where getting the job done is more important than fretting over a linked list. Just my two cents.

As someone moving from the U.S. (possibly) to London in a few years, that's actually pretty comforting. I'm mostly self taught so any hardcore CS problems will throw me. I CAN reverse a linked list, but only if it's a doubly linked list :). (Ok, kidding, I can reverse a singly linked list, but ask me what heapsort is and I would definitely have to look it up.)

For what it's worth I don't really care much about your resume other than the fact that it is a signal for if you _may_ be a good hire. My job as an interviewer is to test if you are a good hire and you need to be able to pass that test. I ask easy programmings questions as a smoke test of technical competence. I banter about your interests and past achievements to see if we are able to communicate and get along (as well as probe for bullshit). I ask hard problems to see how you think and your motivation to get the job done.

Having been in a big company, the primary reason we did lots of coding is to ensure that we have enough signal that you can code. One bombed interview may not mean much, but any more may be an indication that you cannot get the job done without some amount of babysitting.

I started replying, and it turned into a long story: http://trapm.com/how-to-get-hired-or-the-silly-but-adorable-...

I find in the interviews that the Americans like to ask questions based on what you learnt in college. It's almost like a test on your university abilities. The tests on your ability to do the actual job seem to be rather scarce. Your ability to remember different sorting algorithms is much more important.

> It seems they expect interviewees to scream out loud that they are the greatest programmer the world has ever seen!

It is the American way to tell everyone how great you are and then once you have kids, you have to tell everyone how great they are. I suppose it is to be expected in what was/is a competitive capitalist market. If I interviewed in the UK and told everyone how great I am, it would be a sure fire way to not get the job.

Some US companies have a tendency to ask questions that are tricky or are obscure. Even worse is the interview that is completely overloaded with buzzwords and jargon.

Has anyone ever had to reverse a linked list in "the real world" (tm)? Is that a singly-linked or double-linked? Can I use Google, which is what any sane developer would do in "the real world". I don't remember squat about data structs 301. So what. What does the typical developer do daily? I would be much more interested in how they approach bugs. What approaches do they use? Any tools they carry on a flash drive? What drives them crazy? What do they love? What are they learning?

As someone who does a lot of interviews and has switched jobs six months ago, I understand how it feels, on both sides. I've written my fair amount on the topics too (http://allenc.com/2011/04/how-to-score-a-google-onsite-inter... and http://corner.squareup.com/2011/10/why-we-pair-interview.htm...).

I think a part of it is ego, especially nowadays - some really good engineers are doing their own startups now, and when these companies start hiring they're looking for people just as good as they are, which means taking a page out of the Google/Facebook style interview process. I've met and worked with people who, while with great intentions, think great software engineering comes from graduate-level CS studies.

That said, resumes and achievements aren't great indicators of success because so many people have good-looking job histories and many can also sound good just talking about their experience. For me, front-end web eng. has become a pain to hire for; too many candidates put down things they don't know enough about, and unless they have fully-viewable source online it's hard to tell whether they accomplished much of anything in their past projects.

I do think our current standard of heavy whiteboard interviews is misleading, though, which is why I prefer pairing interviews when given a choice. Working with an engineer is a great way to measure cultural fit.

And finally, companies are super careful with filling a position because while firing someone is at-will, the cost in bringing that person up-to-speed, dealing with the bad player's code and work, the messiness in letting that person go (in planning, morale, etc.), not to mention salary and severance make everybody err on the side of caution.

If you can't spend 1-2 days revisiting old basic algorithms like this, you are not even self-motivated or capable of learning on the job to probably join the "bigger names" like you mention. Interviews like these test how well you are at basic comp. sci problems. I used to be like you and from a much more distant country but eventually I realized these questions have a lot of merit: if you don’t know these basics all you are capable of is gluing some APIs and solving some of integration/compatibility problems in different platforms. Not a good fit for companies who are creating those APIs, platforms and breaking new ground. Also, think about it from a statistics point of view: you are more likely to get false positive with people who can’t pass that simple question those who can.

Bloody hell,one piece of advice-don't ever use "bloody good" or any other phrase with the word bloody in it.That's the real world,not a Harry Potter movie.Good luck!