Introduction
It is the sixth mock interview on the second anonymous platform, so I had chance to meet programmers from top ten companies in west coastal area and also graduate students from top universities, and then I had chance to get some feedback about the algorithms I choose, and the behavior issues I have to correct.
First of all, I should give the interviewee the agenda, including how many algorithms I should give. This is the advice I got from Feb. 9, 2018 mock interview. I do not want to scare the interviewee when I ask the interviewee to stop the first algorithm, and I like to move on to the next algorithm.
My goal is to test how confident the interviewee is, how good the interviewee is on algorithm and data structure problem solving. I will continue to ask and then see if I can find any major issues through the interviewee. Since the interviewees are with experience both sides, and also with very good education, so usually I just pay more attention to learn something through the experience.
People varies in terms of soft skills, and learning new things outside the work. Sometimes people can not hide if they do not practice algorithm and data structure long time, like catching up in a month of two.
Algorithm
The interviewee asked me where to find the resource about the algorithm I asked in mock interview. I know that the interviewee is very confident and also independent thinking. So in order to prepare an algorithm to be my mock interview algorithm, I also try to build a profile for the algorithm. I share the algorithm float number and operations on the stackexchange.com website. Here is the link.
I continuously study one algorithm called spiral matrix, Leetcode 54. First time I learn that it takes so much time for me to catch up so many ideas and then I know how smart people are to get the good idea to survive in a mock interview and write a perfect working solution in ten minutes.
Yesterday the interviewee took over ten minutes to read the problem Leetcode 54 and came out the idea, and then he tried to use extra space to avoid so many edge cases. I really like the idea, it is something I am looking for in mocking interview.
I honestly told the interviewee yesterday that some one did much better than him, passed through all four algorithms I gave to him in first 35 minutes, and he did 30 minutes system design interview as well. If you work for a big company, basically you are competing with your coworkers. The anonymous interview is supposed to be hard, difficult to pass the interview. Do not get frustrated if you get low rating. I just make sure that you are guided to the optimal solution, so you learn something and do not waste time on mock interview.
The precondition is that I also have to learn the mock interview algorithm from all the interviewees, I have to build depth and breadth of knowledge of the algorithm.
What I have learned as an interviewer
I did find one thing through the mock interview. I have to learn how to take turn to express my idea and also try to catch the right time.
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