Comment by blablabla123
6 years ago
Had this already 3 times that interviewers ask me out about their Engineering problems, and how I would solve them. Initially I got good or very good feedback but then afterwards was rejected. It feels weird, also if I consider that they might do this with every person interviewed. Crowdsourcing knowledge through interviews, yay ;)
Seems far more appropriate to get toy problems, if that is needed at all, or to get scoped problems but then get reimbursed if it takes several hours.
when i was younger i was interviewing at SomeStartup(tm) in Austin TX. I had a really good conversation with their VP of Engineering, a genuinely nice guy who cared about his people. The last step in the interview was an assignment to write a fairly specific caching system. I hacked on it for a couple hours and got it working per their requirements, demo'd it, handed back the laptop, and everyone liked my work. After that, radio silence. I wonder if I got fooled into solving a problem for them. Granted, that particular problem has been solved a hundred times over so i doubt it. Regardless, i've always wondered what the real story was there. Maybe they were just being polite.
I don’t think there’s bad intent here, just a case of the interviewer wanting to offer up a challenge and taking the one that is top of mind.
True...