Most active commenters

    ←back to thread

    Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

    (www.gwan.com)
    1764 points fatihky | 16 comments | 13 Oct 16 15:15 UTC | HN request time: 0.591s | source | bottom
    Show context
    lordnacho ◴[13 Oct 16 15:43 UTC] No.12701486[source]▶
    I'm amazed he knew things in such detail. I mean who would know just how long a MAC address is? Or what the actual SYN/ACK etc tcp flags are? You just need to know what they're used for, and if you need the specifics, you'll find out with a single search. He seemed to know that as well though. Kernighan for bit twiddling algos, that kind of thing.

    It's a bit strange to have someone non-technical interviewing a techie. You end up with stupid discussions like the one about Quicksort. If you point out qs is one of several things with the same big-O, you'll probably also get it "wrong". But the real problem is that a guy who is just reading off a sheet can't give any form of nuanced feedback. Was the guy blagging the sort algo question? Did he know if in detail? Does he know what the current state of research on that area is? There's no way to know that if your guy is just a recruiter, but I'm sure even a relatively junior coder would be able to tell if someone was just doing technical word salad.

    I wonder what would happen if ordinary people recruited for medical doctor jobs? Would you be comfortable rejecting a guy who'd been in medical school for 10 years based on his not knowing what the "funny bone" is? Wouldn't you tell your boss that you felt a bit out of that league? It's amazing you can get someone to do this without them going red in the face.

    replies(34): >>12701588 #>>12701606 #>>12701620 #>>12701625 #>>12701648 #>>12701659 #>>12701722 #>>12701725 #>>12701748 #>>12701796 #>>12701805 #>>12701854 #>>12701894 #>>12702003 #>>12702005 #>>12702106 #>>12702118 #>>12702186 #>>12702310 #>>12702312 #>>12702327 #>>12702439 #>>12702478 #>>12702496 #>>12702544 #>>12702566 #>>12702572 #>>12702655 #>>12702699 #>>12702757 #>>12702829 #>>12703332 #>>12706141 #>>12708605 #
    jackweirdy ◴[13 Oct 16 15:57 UTC] No.12701625[source]▶
    Medical Recruiter: "What are mitochondria?"

    Applicant Doctor: "They're double membrane-bound organelles found in all eukaryotic organisms, commonly between 0.75 and 3μm in diameter, that generate most of the cell's supply of adenosine triphosphate"

    Recruiter: "No. They are the powerhouse of the cell".

    replies(8): >>12701773 #>>12701781 #>>12701849 #>>12702087 #>>12702180 #>>12702437 #>>12703185 #>>12704604 #
    ryandrake ◴[13 Oct 16 16:14 UTC] No.12701773[source]▶
    What are the components that make up a color?

    "Well, it depends what color model you are using, which differentiates between additive and subtractive color mixing, the medium used (print, screen, etc.)...

    No. It's Red, Green, and Blue.

    replies(2): >>12701808 #>>12703240 #
    1. chrismorgan ◴[13 Oct 16 16:17 UTC] No.12701808[source]▶
    But hang on, the primary colours are red, yellow and blue! I know, they told me so in primary school.
    replies(6): >>12702123 #>>12702196 #>>12702221 #>>12702820 #>>12704256 #>>12706306 #
    2. cwilkes ◴[13 Oct 16 16:52 UTC] No.12702123[source]▶
    Those primary colors are real to me dammit!

    /colorblind

    3. madamelic ◴[13 Oct 16 16:58 UTC] No.12702196[source]▶
    I legitimately had a huge argument with my (former) roommate over primary colors.

    She was more artsy, I was insistent that the primary colors were RGB, she was insistent that they were RYB. We googled. We were both right in some senses.

    replies(3): >>12702319 #>>12702340 #>>12702909 #
    4. ggambetta ◴[13 Oct 16 17:01 UTC] No.12702221[source]▶
    Not sure how much you're kidding, but... that's true for a subtractive colour system, where you start with a white sheet of paper (i.e. reflects every wavelength) and subtract colours (filter out wavelengths) by painting over the paper with crayons. For an additive colour system, where you start with a black monitor screen, and you add wavelengths, the primaries are RGB.
    replies(3): >>12702421 #>>12702446 #>>12704170 #
    5. snovv_crash ◴[13 Oct 16 17:11 UTC] No.12702319[source]▶
    CMYK would be right. RYB means you can't produce cyan or magenta or vivid purples or pinks.
    6. tomsaffell ◴[13 Oct 16 17:13 UTC] No.12702340[source]▶
    Good job you didn't have a third roommate who worked in printing...
    replies(1): >>12704116 #
    7. jcl ◴[13 Oct 16 17:22 UTC] No.12702421[source]▶
    ...and, strictly speaking, the subtractive colors that closest match the typical human eye are cyan, magenta, and yellow -- the "CMY" of CMYK printer inks. Using red, yellow, and blue as subtractive colors gets you a big enough gamut for elementary school color mixing, but it won't give you as big a range of colors as CMY.
    replies(2): >>12703157 #>>12707041 #
    8. ◴[13 Oct 16 17:25 UTC] No.12702446[source]▶
    9. nothis ◴[13 Oct 16 18:16 UTC] No.12702820[source]▶
    Totally off topic (except for the fact that "correctness" of an answer can be a deeper problem than checking against a list) but when you look at how the cones in your eyes are connected to the brain to actually transfer color information it's indeed closer to Red-Green/Yellow-Blue (as described in Lab*). That's why we intuitively include yellow as a "primary color" even though you can just use RGB to describe it.
    10. AnimalMuppet ◴[13 Oct 16 18:26 UTC] No.12702909[source]▶
    I had the same argument with my wife (fortunately not huge...)
    11. bastijn ◴[13 Oct 16 19:00 UTC] No.12703157{3}[source]▶
    These kind of comments is why I love this site. The guy was obviously 100% joking but the engineers in us are bound to reply nonetheless.

    It reminds me of a classic Dilbert. https://goo.gl/images/7DhC9f

    12. madamelic ◴[13 Oct 16 21:19 UTC] No.12704116{3}[source]▶
    Hilariously enough, my fiance now works in printing and actually mixes the colors (t-shirt printing).

    I haven't brought it up yet because we once had a fight over whether that thing you put outside your shower is called a bath mat or a bath rug (Both are correct in different circumstances)

    13. pfarnsworth ◴[13 Oct 16 21:25 UTC] No.12704170[source]▶
    I'm sorry you're incorrect. This paper says Red, Yellow and Blue. Thanks for your time, we'll be in contact.
    14. zem ◴[13 Oct 16 21:37 UTC] No.12704256[source]▶
    wow, there's an entire school just to teach that? (:
    15. timv ◴[14 Oct 16 05:34 UTC] No.12706306[source]▶
    "They told me so in primary school" is clearly anecdotal evidence. You really need a proper citation.

    Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu44JRTIxSQ

    16. chrismorgan ◴[14 Oct 16 09:51 UTC] No.12707041{3}[source]▶
    … and we just add K because a separate black ink is cheaper and more precise.