geekitarian

What the interviewer is really asking: Can you recognize weakness in yourself?  Can you overcome failures and learn from them? How to answer: I love this so much more than the “What is your biggest weakness?” question because it provides so much more insight.  The interviewer is getting the same information, but they are asking the question in a way that people can give an honest response without bashing themselves.  It also is universal.  Everybody has failed at something. Be careful when you’re answering this question, because you don’t want to look like the sole reason for the failure; however, even if you are, highlight how you learned something from the experience.  You want to make it sound like you are able to take failures and stop the same thing from happening again.  Tell a story.  Interviews are a great place for stories.  Emphasize what you learned from the experience and talk about how you'd prevent the same failur...

What the interviewer is really asking: It's equally likely that the interviewer is asking you, "Can you see weakness in yourself?" as it is that the interviewer is asking you, "Will you outwardly bash yourself and convince me not to hire you?" How to answer this question: Jokingly say "I'm an obsessive perfectionist," and try to laugh.  It will open everybody up. Honestly, this is probably the biggest BS question that people ask.  I understand what the interviewer is trying to find out by asking it, but there are MANY better questions that also get the same results, and can get the same results with a more honest response. Regardless, almost everybody asks it, so have something prepared that sounds vaguely like a weakness but really is a thinly veiled strength.  Something like, “If I have time, I really have a hard time letting go of a difficult problem,” can sound almost like a weakness but really isn’t. Another strategy for this...

What the interviewer is really asking: Can you figure out the computational complexity of a situation, algorithm, or process? How to answer: It might seem like a great idea to just memorize the Big O notation of every algorithm or process you've ever heard of, but this is going to be a lot of memorization and isn't going to be as impressive as reasoning your way through a problem. Big O notation is simply a way to quickly describe how efficient some computing code is.  O(n) means that the process runs in time proportional to the amount of information processed; O(n 2 ) means that the process runs in time proportional to the amount of information processed, squared.  So, for instance, if a O(n) process is processing 10,000 pieces of data, this process might take 10,000 milliseconds (or 10 seconds) assuming that each datum requires 1 millisecond of processing; a comparable O(n 2 ) process would take over a day to process the same set of information. An algorithm th...

What the interviewer is really asking: What motivates you?  What interests you?  Are you really a geek, or are you just pretending and going to tell me something like 18th century English literature? How to answer: For this question, it's much less important which class you say; what's most important is how you justify it.  The interviewer is trying to find out what gets you excited.  Be enthusiastic.  Talk about what you learned.  You can go an extra mile and make it memorable with a quirky story about a project you did for the class. Whatever you do, don't justify your choice with, "Because it was easy." Surprisingly enough, most employers aren't looking for employees who don't like to work hard.

What the interviewer is really asking: When people ask this question, generally, they’re not interested in you reading your resume back to them.  They have it in front of them, so either they didn’t read it (a real possibility, especially if they’re very busy), or have forgotten.  This is sometimes used as a stall tactic.  However, it might be that what the interviewer really wants to hear is what YOU think is worth mentioning. How to answer: Be prepared to talk about what you've done and what you've worked on.  Don't talk forever, but spend a minute or two on each of the points that you consider important and relevant.  Typically an interviewer will ask for clarification or more information on areas that spark interest. Personally, nothing drives me crazier than when I ask this question and somebody just reads their resume back to me.   DO NOT read your resume or discuss every single bullet point on it.  Not only is this boring, but it makes y...