No.
However, the only question I was asked back in 1999 when being interviewed by Apple was “Which do you like better: The old Godzilla or the new Godzilla?” And the team asking was dead serious.
At the time they were referring to the traditional Japanese Godzilla portrayed across multiple movies as compared to the 1998 Godzilla abortion starring Matthew whatever his name is. I hadn’t seen all of the old Godzilla movies, but grew up watching a number of them and remember how they got pretty campy at times. But still there was tradition and the idea of honor. I’d seen the 1998 film, and found it interesting, parts of it even decent - but it’s not by any stretch a proper Godzilla movie.
And that’s what I said. I preferred the old Godzilla and the traditional movies even with the campy and goofy writing and the fantastical enemy monsters. I acknowledged the 1998 film was decent in ways but definitely not a Godzilla movie.
The next day I was told that single answer was what got me the job.
Now, keep in mind, this was 1999 - well before things went off the deep end in Silicon Valley. Apple was still rising as a juggernaut of innovation and the world was full of promise for those who could be creative. So I think the question was legitimate.
These days, if I were asked something like this I’d probably politely decline the interview and leave unless it was a job or company I was particularly sweet on. And even then I might ditch.
I routinely turn down “coding challenges” or “exercises”. These days most of the idiots trying to look smart with weird questions fail pretty hard. And I’ve seen too many “coding challenges” judged by incompetent idiots (and pajeets).
The old movies were fun.
Or they give you a problem they can’t solve, get smart folks to solve it, then never hire anyone.
When they ask stupid shit, return a question like “so how much fuel is needed in a small airplane to give a pound of flesh to the IRS”
Or “do you ever wonder how much fuel was in killdozer, and why Marvin didn’t blow the whole thing up”
Yeah I was once asked to do a data challenge. And the prompt was literally “Tell us everything about this data.”
So I glossed over the easy stuff (number of rows, groupings, all that stupid shit a pajeet would be so proud of). And in my answer I told them that. Then I wrote a custom data analysis engine and pushed the data through it and what did I find? Patterns. Distinct patterns.
In my answer after telling them a few basics and saying I wasn’t going to focus on that, I wrote a fucking essay (complete with tables as examples) on the patterns I found. Then I submitted my answer.
The idiots let some low level data girl go over my answer. And she admitted in front of me she didn’t understand it. Then she stated she didn’t think I answered the question because I didn’t go in to all the low level pajeet shit. I look at her across the Zoom meeting, with her boss right there (the guy with whom I had good rapport and I thought would be reviewing my answer) and I say “I call that out in my answer and dispense with it as that stuff is too easy for what you want.” Her boss visibly turned green.
Then I start explaining the patterns in the test data. The boss stops me. Uhh… it’s not test data. It’s real data. Real customer data. And there are patterns? Yes they are. He looks at my conclusion for a moment and turns a shade greener.
They didn’t hire me. But a friend in the inside told me later my data analysis fucked up a lot of shit in that company. Things started going downhill for them. My friend quit and it wasn’t long thereafter the company basically folded and was fire-saled.
This is one big reason I don’t do “coding challenges” or “exercises”. I’ve had other similar experiences. Fuck it. They can look at the code I’ve published.
I've had a few of those people I knew on the inside give me info later. Every single time the company is FUBAR'd to the point where the acronym really doesn't describe the internals at all.
I also read that your company example was fire-salad, for some reason. I like that better.
Exactly. “I’m sorry your jeet mind lacks the ability to see the patterns I can recognize, you should likely spear cow shit on yourself and cover this place in cow urine. That will likely help, I’ll go work for a company that’s not run by neophyte fucks suck as your self.” End zoom meeting yes/no YES
I had one interview where they submitted a 'code challenge' to me a day before and had me solve and submit it for the interview. Day of the interview they asked me what I did there and why. I didn't get that job, though the code was sound. I have no doubt that code is running in production right now.
Fucking kikes.