Hints during an interview
Wanted some advice regarding receiving hints during an interview. Say you give an answer to a question correctly but the interviewer wants you to optimize the solution. You get the idea partially but then he gives you hints while solving it and you eventually get the entire solution with the help of the interviewer’s hints. How is this perceived by interviewers? Do they expect you to solve questions without any hints? Or is it common to receive hints to solve questions during interviews? Any advice would be appreciated!
small nudges are fine. like "ah dynamic programming is an interesting idea, but let's just go with the stack algorithm you mentioned earlier." But, lots of hints are a way to make you feel good, even though you've failed. it is pity. I like to end all interviews on a good note, like "Well yeah you pretty much got it," even though you've missed a lot of key points and I'm giving you a "Leaning No Hire" recommendation. you need to make a really strong come back to recover. hints aren't free, find a way to make up for them.
What the fuck man. Grow a backbone and provide clear feedback. If you expected something else, be clear at the end of the interview at least. No one comes to interviews to get your pity. Don't waste their time. You are the type of person I don't like to work with. Agrees face to face, but backstabs afterwards.
I totally agree with lasercatei. I fucking hate this kind of interviewer. Just give us an honest feedback, we are not 5yo kids and we value honest negative feedback more than fake positive feedback that gives us false hope..
I find them annoying because they are internal representations of someone else's brain. Like the time I was using a linked list AS A F*ING queue but the interviewer was trying to hint me towards queue without saying "queue". He even went so far as list all the data structures you know.
Well if you need a queue, please use a queue.
Your recruiter has no idea how to solve most of the problems you will encounter in an interview. You cannot expect meaningful hints form him or her. They won’t be present with you during the interview anyway. 🍆
Depends on how big the hints were and the level of the role you are interviewing for. A good interviewer gives you feedback regardless at the end of the interview.
Hints can also be a way to see how collaborative you are in the problem solving department. I wouldn't think of it as a bad thing. They want to make sure you're not a douche to work with.