I was given the second chance for the FB phone interview, and seems like I failed again. Actually I am quite confident with algorithm questions, from deriving the optimal solution to implementation. But when I do the phone interview, I feel I am being dragged around by the interviewer especially when an Interviewer does not let me think quitely even for 10 seconds at all and keep talking to me. It gets quite annoying when an interviewer keeps trying to give me a hint even when I am not stuck. Pointing out a bug and missing edge cases when I didnt even get to the point. I am wondering if this kind of questions are actually intended/designed to disturb the intrrviewee. Of course I always try not to do this when I am interviewing someone else. I dont have the same issue during an on-site though. How should I control this situation? How do I practice to endure this situation? Should I say "I am not stuck, let me address the edge cases one by one"?
If you're not stuck and you're still getting a hint, it's a hint that you're not moving fast enough.
Thanks. This could be the case. Although I am not very slow tbh. I can code things in 5 mins. But got much slower when interrupted randomly.
You were probably unlucky with the interviewer. It's normal for interviewers to prod slow moving candidates in direct and indirect ways.
Tell the interviewer how you are going to approach solving the problem. Mention that you will try to come up with a brute force solution first, add test cases, then optimize the solution and at the end you will think of edge cases. Of course, this is just an example, you should follow whatever strategy you think it makes to solve a problem. At the end, everything is all about expectations and being on the same page.
Are you talking at all during the interview ? Voice your thoughts ... If you are going to look at edge cases later, say so. Then say you need to ruminate for 30 seconds or whatever. Sounds like you are not communicating.
Yes I do communicate well. Communication wise it is fine. Tbh I didnt have this problem before, but I feel FB interviewers are quite different.
Yes, say something like that. You aren’t passing the interview anyway, right? It can’t hurt, might help.
I will handle it more elegantly next time thanks :)
I had a similar experience in one of the coding round at Facebook recently onsite. And it’s partly caused me to perform badly. But luckily I had another team interested in me and did good with that team and got an offer. One way is to respectfully ask for a moment to think about it. But some interviewers might take off points that you are slow. It’s really a draw of luck, you just have to try again.
Thanks. Congrats!!
Leetcode more dude. You gotta know the answer right away and only take time to implement and test. At the same time, explain what you're doing out loud. Anything less than that will fail, unless you're a girl with a very attractive LinkedIn profile
I wouldn’t hire you. You seem arrogant and not a good team player. You cannot collaborate with your teammates. If you don’t speak up during the interview and let your interviewer know about your thought process, it would be hard for them to judge you. Its not always about the solution, its also about how you got there.
No, just go with it and be thankful. It sounds like that interviewer wants it to be a collaboration and see how good of a teammate you are. If you push back on him/her it wouldn’t come off very well
That is what I do. But then it results in a bad performance.