My worst tech interview experience
Nowadays, with 20+ years of experience as a software developer behind me, having worked for Apple, First American, Bloomberg, AT&amp;T, Booking, Amazon, many startups, etc. my job interviews have never been easier.<p>Before I am presented with a dumbass interviewer who throws a ridiculous question my way about algorithmic stuff, I prepare them: &quot;Since we are both seeing if the other party is competent, I want you to know that I want you to also solve my questions. They will be slightly more difficult than the questions you pose to me.&quot;<p>When I applied for a job at Toptal this made the algorithm-test disappear like snow before an up-close nuclear blast.<p>I&#x27;ve interviewed hundreds of candidates over the years and I would never ask a question I can&#x27;t also answer from the top of my head, in detail, and then some. Turns out, most technical interviewers who ask you &quot;write a bubble sort&quot; couldn&#x27;t do it themselves.<p>And if they could, it&#x27;d be full of bugs. I mean, I&#x27;d rather have developers on my team who Google &quot;bubble sort python&quot; and go for a tried and tested open-source solution. I don&#x27;t need developers who can reinvent complicated wheels from scratch; I want developers who are efficient.<p>Likewise, I don&#x27;t want to work for a company where developers pride themselves on over-engineering their things.<p>Having worked at Apple, it doesn&#x27;t surprise me one bit how slow they are developing simple features and fixing simple bugs. It&#x27;s a red-tape hell full of not-very pragmatic engineers that are way too smart for the good of the company.