Most Asked Interview Questions

Introduction

I am currently working at Yahoo one of the top Internet companies in the world. I also had the chance to work at PayPal the dominant company in online payments. When I lost my job in 2008 I had more than 30 phone interviews and several onsite interviews. Just to mention few names, I interviewed with Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Symantec, nVidia, Linkedin and few more. As long as you are applying to a technical software position whether it is QA or development then forget about the silly most asked interview questions such as tell me about your strengths and weaknesses. In this short article I will only mention few basic points that a software engineer should be aware of before interviewing at companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc. Not only I interviewed at many computer software companies but also I participated in interviewing candidates who applied to our team so the advice is from the heart:

Your skills must match job description

Companies look for candidates not to increase the number of employees but to fill positions with specific requirements so technical experience must match the job description. Let me give an example here. If a QA engineer is doing test automation on Linux environment while the position is about front end automation using Selenium then having 10 years of back end experience is not a great match even if the candidate is a smart guy. This does not mean that the company will not allow the candidate to compete for the position. In other words years of professional experience become irrelevant if the experience does not match with the job description. Moral of the story, try to apply for positions that match you technical experience.

Relevant work experience

As you can see, I maintain this website because I enjoy coding and I love computer algorithms. I am also interested in computer 3D graphics, Facebook development and all cool technical fields however this did not help me to get a job in software development. Personal and school projects were not enough to convince hiring managers that I am a strong programmer. They just looked at my resume and noticed that I have only QA experience. It is sad but it is a fact of life. Employers look at what you did at previous employers. I decided to stop looking for developer positions and continued looking for QA positions simply because it happened that I started my professional career as a QA engineer. As long as my resume says I am a QA engineer then companies treat me like that even though I enjoy coding even more than testing. Moral of the story, apply for jobs that are similar to what you already worked on before otherwise your chance will be less. I am not saying here do not apply for new roles or advance in your career, on the contrary one has to try new things but my point is that do not be surprised if you are not accepted if you apply for a job that you never worked on something similar in the past.

Academic Strength

This is one of the most important points if not the most important point. A company like Google or Microsoft test candidates in data structures and algorithms over the phone. When I interviewed with Google they shared a Google Doc with me and requested me to write code and debug it. They ask about key topics in data structures and algorithms such as hash tables and running time. Moral of the story, If you want to increase your chance to pass those interviews then you need to be very strong in coding, debugging and testing from an academic point of view. I doubt that work experience itself can save you if the interviewer asks you about some tricks in algorithm design. This needs allot of practice to master.

Way of thinking

This point is also one of the most important issues that a candidate has to pay attention to. No body memorizes tons of information, unless you have worked for years on a certain topic, you are not going to get it from your memory on the spot.  Mostly likely you will research it if you have a good thought process. Companies like Google and Microsoft at least based on my personal experience concentrates allot on the way you think and come out with solutions even though if you do not know the final answer. Over the phone they try to put more pressure on you by increasing the level of difficulty to check how you react and how you will attack the problem. Do not say I do not know the answer but you should demonstrate that you can think and brain storm. I was personally invited to interview at Microsoft in Sunnyvale CA after they liked the way I think over the phone despite the fact that I could not answer some of the questions. Moral of the story, this is not a TOEFL exam, it is an interview to determine who best fit the offered position.

Communication skills

Software development is team based so you need to have the appropriate written and verbal communication skills. Moral of the story, if you are a nerd that is not enough, you need to interact with people.

Work under pressure

All companies that I interviewed at in the Silicon Valley informed me that I should adapt and work in a fast paced environment. At Yahoo for example, we develop and test software products that are easy to use from an end user perspective but the agile nature of work makes it very challenging. Before Yahoo I used to work for a semiconductor company and the software we were developing was very complex but the development process was not fast paced at all so it was not as challenging as the fast paced one even though the product is complex. A good programmer or QA engineer might fail to do the job if he can not work on several tasks at the same time, or if he can not work with no or less documentation and he has to expect things to pop up out of nowhere. Moral of the story, you need to be a hard worker.

Learn about the business you are applying for

This point might seem less important but it is indeed very important. One time I was interviewing at VeriSign and the interviewer asked me about their business. You should do your homework and know what the business stand for and how they make money. Get an idea about competition and how the company is doing in the market. Educate yourself about their products otherwise you might loose the chance even if you are the smartest candidate.

Personality

If you have everything discussed earlier but hard to deal with people or fail to work within a team or have an attitude then good luck.

Conclusion

As you can see do not worry too much about what you should dress on the interview day. Those folks look for smart, hardworking and problem solvers. Believe me 🙂