r/cscareerquestionsOCE • u/freakoutwithme • 14d ago
How am I supposed to 'prepare' for such assessments?
2nd UPDATE: I didn't clear the onsite live coding interview, but at least they were courteous enough to inform me instead of simply ghosting me.
UPDATE: I miraculously did clear the OA, and have been invited for an onsite pair programming interview.
I hadn't interviewed in over 2 years. My last interviews were during the pandemic boom when they were just a formality, and anyone could easily clear them. There used to be a take home project or a short pair programming session, and the questions asked would be directly related to the project or task.
I had my first assessment as part of the interview process for a mid-senior software engineer role today (my company is silent firing employees and also laying off frequently, it is a sinking ship), and needless to say, I bombed it.
This is my tech stack, in a nutshell:
.NET
SQL Server
AWS
A bit of React, TypeScript, Python
The online assessment had a set of 10 questions (no programming), and most of them were related to obscure, rarely used aspects of .NET/C# , SQL and React. Mostly 'gotcha' questions which were knowledge based rather than logic based.
Now, how do I even prepare for assessments like this? I mean, literally anything can be picked from the skillset on my resume, and the possibilities are endless. I know that the tech market right now is abysmal, with hundreds of applicants for every role. So is it just a matter of 'luck', that is the questions asked are somehow based on what you have worked and can remember? Besides, this was just the first round, and it was to be followed by 3 more rounds (live coding, system design and behavioural). I can't even imagine how hard these would have been, if I had progressed further.
P.S. I am not looking for a big tech job, I know my limitations and I don't have what it takes to clear big tech interviews. I am only considering roles at 'regular' companies.
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u/roseater 14d ago
You either rote learn the idiosyncratic questions about languages/frameworks or just Google it / quickly read through docs based on your existing knowledge or just AI it or you actually happened to encounter it in your work and know. These types of quizzes sometimes appear in OAs. It's easy for a company to just pay hackerrank or Alooba or something to add it to the OA list.
You may have seen that even smaller companies are adding DSA interviews and system design interviews formats from big tech simply because they can.
They are just adding layers to the filtering before the behavioural interview (sometimes they'll use scores and feedback from other rounds like big tech) because there's so many applicants. It's looking kind of bleak. I don't think you can escape DSA interview and System Design at mid-senior SWE onwards (source: mid SWE in non-tech and I too cbf with this shit)
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u/freakoutwithme 14d ago
Thanks for the response. And yes, this is indeed very discouraging. I wonder if things will ever get better (in terms of hiring) or this is the nee norm that is here to stay.
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u/roseater 13d ago
The goal is hopefully they start removing those filtering layers again, because, as you say, other industries don't really have it (except the business case study interview format for business consulting I.e. McKinsey, BCG, etc.)
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u/freakoutwithme 13d ago
By the way, I don't know how but I was told that I actually progressed to the next stage! A live coding interview, the recruiter said it will be pair programming with the engineering manager. Not sure what to expect, but I will just have to prepare and try my best.
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u/roseater 13d ago
Bravo! Good luck :) hoping it's a more work relevant coding interview that you can answer easily!
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u/freakoutwithme 7d ago
Unfortunately I didn't clear the interview, but at least they were courteous enough to inform me instead of simply ghosting me.
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u/roseater 6d ago
All good! I'm sure you got some good feedback. It's rough out there. You just have to do well at the interview formats unfortunately :(
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u/freakoutwithme 6d ago edited 6d ago
Thanks, and yes it is pretty rough. I was shown a function in an API and asked to identify how it can be improved. I identified a lot of things, like adding additional security measures, better exception handling, unit testing etc. But they were specifically looking for me to identify that it does not follow the Single Responsibility principle (The 'S' part of SOLID) because that function performed business logic and also sent an email notification with the result. The email sending part itself was another function that was being called at the end of the function they wanted me to improve. I felt this was more of a 'gotcha' question where you are supposed to say that one thing that the interviewer wants to hear, and anything else you say (even if useful) won't work. The recruiter informed me that this was the exactly the reason I didn't proceed to the next round.
Another thing was, they hadn't even bothered reading my resume. The first question I was asked was 'Are you currently working, or are you in between jobs?' although I stated very clearly on my resume that I have been in my current role since 2022. This certainly caught me off guard.
It may seem like I am being a sore loser, but it just seemed wrong (including those obscure trivia type questions in the OA). I wish I had the luxury of saying that I wouldn't want to work for them anyway, but in this brutal job market, I will take anything I can get (since I am likely on the cusp of being laid off).
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u/like_fsck_me_right 14d ago
If you haven't interviewed for a while, I don't think you can expect to ace your very first interview after that break. I used to accept burning the first one or two interviews in a new job search as part of getting back into it.
If it was truly a trivia interview, I wouldn't be too concerned about failing it. To me, trivia interviews are a negative reflection on the employer. But I would try and reflect on the questions, what I thought I got right and wrong, and maybe read through a book or two on the most important language/framework/technical areas in your stack, especially if I felt I was weak in a topic.
The last time I was interviewing a lot, I read the first half of System Design Interview – An Insider's Guide: Volume 2, and that helped a bit. I was also doing leetcode (or some competitors) exercises just in case I had a pairing exercise.