Talk:Coding interview

Disagreement

I strongly disagree with the claim is intended to seek out creative thinkers and those who can adapt their solutions to rapidly changing and dynamic scenarios. As I've interviewed with MS in the past, and have encountered some of the questions back in the days when they were still hooked on the cargo cult of straight fermi problems like How would you move Mount Fuji?, creative thinking was not part of the agenda and a quick way to fail the interview. The approved method of answering such questions was to start estimating - not ask why one wanted to move it, nor where to move it. By obsessing on how good candidates are at solving puzzles and answering trivia, Microsoft gets away from finding folks who are smart and gets things done and instead only selects for candidates who are good at solving puzzles and answering trivia. While fun, and keeping in the spirit of the founder Bill Gates, they do a poor at finding software developers which leads to Microsoft claiming that they cannot find enough domestic candidates (consequently they ask for H1B limits to be raised). Tangurena (talk) 16:51, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Relevance

Pick the right column as "smart", the left column as "not smart", then pick the top row as "does not get things done" and the bottom row as "gets things done".

Many companies continue to "follow the tail lights" of Microsoft and use these interviewing techniques, so one encounters this style of interview quite frequently in American software development. Joel Spolsky, on his website and in the book How Would You Move Mount Fuji describes the problem as finding out what the candidate is based on a 2-value Karnaugh map, with the values smart and gets things done. Ideally, a company wants to hire candidates in the lower left colum: smart and gets things done, and hopefully HR screens out all the resumes of people in the upper left corner neither smart, nor gets things done. The remainder of the interviewing process is to find out which square the candidate fits in. If others want to rename this article something like "Modern Programmer Interview" instead of "" then I'd see no problem with this. Since significant numbers of software companies use this interview format, it is a relevant article for Wikipedia despite the 3 previous attempts to delete it. Tangurena (talk) 16:51, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

When used by other companies, sometimes one gets interviewed over lunch with 1 or 2 interviewers. In addition to technical issues, these are testing to see if you can be shown to customers or must be kept in the back, and if you're the sort of person who orders the most expensive item on the menu (which is a bad sign) or not. Tangurena (talk) 16:51, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Manhole Cover is obsolete

I quit Microsoft in 2007 and well before that time the practice of asking many of these types of questions were formally discouraged by HR. Some specifics: don't ask the manhole cover question. *Everybody* is familiar with the question, you don't get useful responses, and nothing a candidate says in response will give practical information data their ability to design, implement, or test software. Stop asking "ah ha" questions (e.g. three light bulbs, three switches, closed room). Candidates can easily either get lucky or get screwed by these questions. In hindsight, it's pretty clear that these questions, though fun for the personality type who will probably be a good candidate, is objectively bad and doesn't help filter in/out solid hires. I haven't stayed in touch with old colleagues about the hiring practices but unless something changed to bring these back (which is possible but would be super surprising), these questions should be considered cultural history, but have been out of the hiring process for at least a decade. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Slipperyp (talk • contribs) 04:45, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

Revelance?

Is this really encyclopedic? Obviously if we wish to retain our reputation as The Encyclopedia that Slashdot built then it will be useful, but one company's interviewing process (not significantly different from many others) is hardly worth of a real encyclopedia. (And the I should be lowercase) DJ Clayworth 14:37, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

...I usually call it Geekypedia... 131.111.8.101 00:53, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmm... if you don't feel that it is needed; then request a deletion. Unless you can name any other large compaines that use unusual interview techniques, I would say that it should stay. But feel free to leave another comment! 14:47, 9 September 2005 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.122.56.139 (talk • contribs) 14:47, 9 September 2005

Plenty of other companies use this interviewing format. Tangurena (talk) 16:51, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Advert

WHOAH, what happened, this page used to list lots of quirky facts about the unusual questions microsoft would ask people, and why. now its like an infomercial for prospective future employees. someone change it back!! -scared casual user, 1 nov 2005 PS - its annoying how so many compaines are sticking near advertisements in wikipedia entries.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.168.58.201 (talk • contribs) 13:09, 1 November 2005

• No no no! It's not Microsoft or another company that posted this entry. In the candidate for deletion entry, the creator of this article said he only created because there was not a link to "" and was just acting on good faith to contribute. Also, please sign your talk posts with four tildes (~~~~). --★Ukdragon37★^talk 17:54, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

This sounds like infomercial advertising to me...--Dwarf Kirlston 15:34, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

"Not a link to microsoft interview" is not the reason it was kept. It was kept because of notability, deriving from it's innovation. Little of which is shown in the current article. The current article would perhaps would be better off as "Microsoft Recruitment Practices" (there isn't a link to that either is there?)--Dwarf Kirlston 21:25, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree, I came here from the Microsoft article hoping to find some examples of their quirky questioning technique, only to find a piece riddled (IMHO) with NPOV points and OR. As a new editor I don't trust myself enough to attempt a resurrection of the original unbiased edit. Plus I don't know if the editor(s) concerned were genuinely working in good faith. Blitterbug (talk) 20:58, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Answers to Microsoft questions...

hi,this is ajay, here are some answers of mine to Microsoft questions. the answers given are entirely from my personal opinion and hope this page will be helpful to you as a reference

• What types of projects (academic or otherwise) have inspired you in the past? ‘Electro oculography’ is one of the projects that inspired me.This project aims that bringing computer facilities to differently able people.This device works on simple electronic sensor principles and utmost research is being carried out in most advanced laboratories. • What are some self-directed missions that may have influenced your career direction? I was determined to become an engineer when I was in high school to support my hard working father. I also realized that my financial status may not permit of realizing that unless I earn a merit scholarship and so I strived hard to do well in my high school there by earning a free education offer from a prominent junior college in my place. I did well in engineering entrance there by getting a free seat in B.Tech in a good college, where my self-directed missions brought a flowering path to my career success. • Did you have a moment of epiphany when you KNEW what you wanted to be when you grew up? I did have great moments as I always did foresee what I am going to be right from my high school. I always cherished the feeling of imagination of how am going to fulfil my parents dreams, and of course am going to achieve this soon. • How does Microsoft fit into your vision? I was grown-up hearing the impeccable research work being carried out in the state-of-the art laboratories of Microsoft. The continuing dominance of Microsoft in software field, it’s objectives and vision always inspired me. My relative Murty (an employee of Denmark based Microsoft), inspired me and I heard from him the policies of Microsoft in core research, which I feel matched my attitude towards research. • What are some things that excite and motivate you? Well there are many things that motivated me. Of all to go for a pick ,the following are some: i)My mother’s motivation ii)My fascination towards science and technology • What are some examples of poorly/well-designed software? What makes the software this way and how would you change it? I think a well-designed software is the one that is hack proof and provide high degree of security to the master, catering to the needs of technology. e.g.: Microsoft Office can be quoted as one of the greatest software’s because of its features, security and relevance in industry. I think collaborative work of software professionals, periodic upgrading of software catering to emerging needs, maintaining standard and unique code-format contribute to this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.212.210.166 (talk) 13:15, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Rename the article

If more than one company is using this model (Google process, described, for instance, in [1] really looks very similar), should it be called "Microsoft interview", even if Microsoft has pioneered it? Renaming differently may finally result more generic and more encyclopedic article, less shewed toward marketing a single company. If no good name have ever been proposed, we may call it "Microsoft type interview" at least. Best it would be to find a company-neutral name if one exists. I think the article should contain more general analysis than just listing the examples of possible questions Audriusa (talk) 08:27, 19 March 2011 (UTC).

• "Interview 2.0" seems to be the accepted name over at The Daily WTF. Medinoc (talk) 12:02, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

SDET: Software Development Engineer in Test or Software Design Engineer in Test?

This article previously defined SDET as "Software Development Engineer in Test", but several months ago it was changed to "Software Design Engineer in Test". The former seems to be more common on microsoft.com and in the Internet in general, so I question the correctness of this change. (I do acknowledge, however, that both terms have been used by Microsoft employees who hold this position.) I posed the question to the author of the change on his user talk page.

Jeremy Reeder (talk) 04:04, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

Locations: SQL Server Home - Las Colinas, Texas

No mention of the fact that Dallas/Fort Worth is second only to Silicon Valley in the number of U.S. technology companies that call it home. Among those is Microsoft, whose 32-acre Las Colinas campus is located just 12 miles from downtown Dallas. Las Colinas houses a major customer service and support center, with many of our 1,700+ employees working in technical support, sales, and consulting.

Stacylaray (talk) 05:04, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

References

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