Technical Skills
- Problem solving: not-easy algorithm questions
- Coding
- Design
Soft skills
- Communication
- Retrospect
- Mistakes related with design/decision
- What you learned from your mistake
- Bugs/troubleshooting
- Eager to learn
- Be flexible, willing to listen, not stubborn
What questions to ask
- ask interesting/challenging questions
- Or questions that's not difficult but focus on coding (bug free)
- ask questions that can be solved in different ways
- Avoid questions that can only solved one specific approach, unless it's obvious(binary search etc), and you are tesing coding skills not problem solving skills
Don't ask
- brain teasers, puzzles, riddles
- problems only because you are interested, you just happen to know, or you just learned recently
Know the questions very well
- Different approaches
- Expect different approaches that you don't even know
- Verify it(use example, proof), if it works, the candidate does a good job and you also learn something new
Know common cause of bugs
- Able to detect bugs in candidate's code quickly
Give candidates the opportunity to prove themselves and shine
We are trying to evaluate the candidate's skills thoroughly, what he/she is good at, what not.
If you plan to ask 2 coding questions, one simple, and one more difficult, tell candidates
Let the candidates know your expectation
Make the candidates learn something
- If the candidate doesn't give right solution/answer, and at the end of the interview, he/she wants to know how to approach it, tell him/her.
Why?
- Candidates takes a lot of effort for the interview (one day off and commute), if they desire to learn something, and learning something make them feel good
- Prove that you know the solution and have reasonable answer, and not ask questions you even don't know much
No surprise
If you find issues/bugs in candidate's code or design, point them out
The candidate should have a rough idea about how he/she performs in this interview
Be fair
Phone interview
Prefer coding question over design question
- as design is partly about communication and it's hard to test communication skills over phone
