Current Events > I just bombed a software dev interview because I couldn't define vocab words

(+) Yeah! (+)

Was sort of the pre screening interview, a zoom call with the manager of the dept

Was asked to describe design patterns and I was just like I have no idea what youre talking about

looked it up afterwards and of course I know exactly what design patterns are, but never once in my professional career or even my education have I ever heard the phrase design patterns

I dont need to describe object inheritance in my day to day job but I use it all the time

seems like a way to filter out people who are 5+ years removed from college imo

anyway its practice for next time; just frustrating bc I thought the job would be a good fit

When I was in college, they told me that there was a book titled "Design Patterns," and it was a hot topic, but I never read the book

Many software dev interviews ask about inheritance. Some of them even ask, "What are the 3 principles of inheritance?" The answers are abstract classes and polymorphism

One interview asked me to reverse a string. I did it with tail recursion. You put each letter into an accumulator, and then the tail recursion reverses it

Some other common questions are: write a sorting function. Or find the average of an array of numbers

xue1 posted...

When I was in college, they told me that there was a book titled "Design Patterns," and it was a hot topic, but I never read the book

Many software dev interviews ask about inheritance. Some of them even ask, "What are the 3 principles of inheritance?" The answers are abstract classes and polymorphism

yeah this is just bullshit vocab words though. You can use inheritance and polymorphism on a regular basis in a real life job without knowing those words

One interview asked me to reverse a string. I did it with tail recursion. You put each letter into an accumulator, and then the tail recursion reverses it

Some other common questions are: write a sorting function. Or find the average of an array of numbers

This type of stuff makes sense as it tests problem solving skills as well as basic programming

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

You can know how to code without knowing buzzwords
in fact Id guess in general coders who dont know buzzwords are better than coders that do

Kloe_Rinz posted...

You can know how to code without knowing buzzwords
in fact Id guess in general coders who dont know buzzwords are better than coders that do

Yeah

also came across that one job that required a link to a git repository as part of the application AKA show us all the development you do outside your job

Fuck off dude I have a full time job and a family

so follow up and ask for another chance. Prove you can be of value in another way.

xue1 posted...

One interview asked me to reverse a string.

Damn near every language as a strrev function. It's pointless to roll your own.

An Amazon search for 'design patterns" in software has a bunch of books.

SweetieBeIle462 posted...

An Amazon search for 'design patterns" in software has a bunch of books.

He was looking for this

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_design_pattern

e.g. things like singletons, observers, factories, that are basic building blocks for a lot of situations

TheGoldenEel posted...

e.g. things like singletons, observers, factories, that are basic building blocks for a lot of situations

If it can't be done in a MVC paradigm, you're already thinking about it too much.

That's a really basic thing to not know lol

CinderLock posted...

That's a really basic thing to not know lol

It's something coders have been naturally doing since the 60s, and trying to describe it all in the 90s just ended up confusing everyone.

CinderLock posted...

That's a really basic thing to not know lol

The concept itself is something a software developer should know, but the vocab words attached to it are just academia

i never think oh what Im doing here is object inheritance I just do it

TheGoldenEel posted...

i never think oh what Im doing here is object inheritance I just do it

Once you understand the basic difference of "has" and "is" when making objects, the vocabulary doesn't matter.

You should 112% know when you're doing inheritance or not. And that should definitely be a part of your vocabulary.

TheGoldenEel posted...

The concept itself is something a software developer should know, but the vocab words attached to it are just academia

i never think oh what Im doing here is object inheritance I just do it

I thought exactly 'Im doing object inheritance'.

Now I have 4 kids.

I should take that interview.

ktownslayer16 posted...

so follow up and ask for another chance. Prove you can be of value in another way.

Btw this inspired me to send a thank you followup email where I said that I followed up on these terms

just got an email back that they are advancing me to the next round of interviews

So I guess I didnt bomb the interview

I mean...I get what you're saying (you don't have to necessarily be able to explain something to do it) but the fact remains that you still need to be able to convey to the interviewer that you understand the work you'll be doing and that involves the terminology related to the job.

It might be nice if you could submit like a coding portfolio just to show your expertise without having to explain the mechanics of it. I'd ask if you can do that on your next interview.

TheGoldenEel posted...

Btw this inspired me to send a thank you followup email where I said that I followed up on these terms

just got an email back that they are advancing me to the next round of interviews

So I guess I didnt bomb the interview

The possibilities here are that the "vocabulary recital" is just a trap to weed out the kids straight out of college, or, "thanks, I looked that up afterwords" is the bit they actually want.

Design patterns is something that is easily just logically thought about, not sure why that would be a trick question? I'm 10 years removed and a Senior Software Engineer and it wouldn't be hard to just rattle off random stuff that applies here.

Kaldrenthebold posted...

Design patterns is something that is easily just logically thought about, not sure why that would be a trick question? I'm 10 years removed and a Senior Software Engineer and it wouldn't be hard to just rattle off random stuff that applies here.

I have never heard the term design patterns until now

reached out to some friends who went to school around the same time as me and they said the same thing

and I went to a top CS school so its not like we had some bullshit education

TheGoldenEel posted...

I have never heard the term design patterns until now

reached out to some friends who went to school around the same time as me and they said the same thing

and I went to a top CS school so its not like we had some bullshit education

I mean I went to a private university specifically for Software Engineering, which went all through the theory of crafting software from start to finish so I guess it is just something I've learned. Design patterns, life cycle methods, different standards of methodology like the dumb waterfall method or the spiral method, software architecture designs and requirements gathering, etc. Basically I didn't really learn to code but learned most everything else.

Sounds like all their questions up to that point had a central theme? That's my paranoia guess