I recently had an interview which was the worst of both worlds.
I was given a take home problem under the guise that they did not do live whiteboard coding interviews. I did the problem, and it was impressive enough to get me on the phone. I was impressive enough to get from the phone to an on-site.
What do you think happened at the on-site? Yup, standard whiteboard coding interviews. Nervousness and pressure means I didn't have a very good showing, although I did solve the problems.
Was told that very day that I wasn't going to be a good fit. Any feedback from the interview where we finally did talk about my solution to the take home problem would not have been taken into consideration as I was told it wasn't a fit right after that interview and nothing was said between the two people.
I really do think that the only thing they found out about me was that I can not do those sorts of problems while nervous and under pressure. What they didn't find out was anything about my actual abilities.
I wouldn't be that sure. Similar thing happened to me in the past. Two phone interviews (one with HR, one with a developer). Asked to go for a face-to-face and they asked me to do a coding exercise in an hour but what they wanted would've taken a good few days to implement.
Anyway, my solution worked. We went through my code and discussed a few possible performance improvements. I was also asked a few theoretical questions which I answered confidently and was under no pressure at all.
They got back to me two days later just saying 'no'. No feed-back whatsoever. It was because the two developer who interviewed me were the world's most miserable developers and the moment they walked in I could tell they have no interest in talking to me or interviewing me. Not even trying to engage in small talk. I wasn't going to take it even if I was offered the role because I wouldn't want to work with them. And they probably found me too friendly and sociable and instead wanted to work with an introvert.
Bottomline is it all comes down to the chemistry. This sounds like I'm talking about romantic relationships but it's more or less the same whenever you're about to join a new social group. That's why all these coding exercises, in my opinion, are just a waste of time.
I was given a take home problem under the guise that they did not do live whiteboard coding interviews. I did the problem, and it was impressive enough to get me on the phone. I was impressive enough to get from the phone to an on-site.
What do you think happened at the on-site? Yup, standard whiteboard coding interviews. Nervousness and pressure means I didn't have a very good showing, although I did solve the problems.
Was told that very day that I wasn't going to be a good fit. Any feedback from the interview where we finally did talk about my solution to the take home problem would not have been taken into consideration as I was told it wasn't a fit right after that interview and nothing was said between the two people.
I really do think that the only thing they found out about me was that I can not do those sorts of problems while nervous and under pressure. What they didn't find out was anything about my actual abilities.