Back when I still used Reddit, so many posts were just CS students trying to get other Redditors to do their homework for them. I don’t think I ever came across any technical interview cheaters, but I’m sure there were some.
I remember one interview I had with a candidate. It was for a database analyst position that required SQL.
The first round was typically a phone screen where I chat with the candidate, get to know them a bit.
Second round was code review. I asked them to do a SQL query that did x.
The queries were simple. The goal was to get the candidate to walk through the query.
I had one candid that, over screen share, wrote the query flawlessly. Then I asked them to explain what it was doing. The candidate froze.
I can get understand getting nervous so I moved onto an insert statement. I had them write one and then do another without using certain terms (often leading to a sub query).
Again, flawless. I asked what situations would you use one over the other.
Again, they froze. I started to get suspicious that they were cheating and had them, instead of typing the answer, say the answer. When they couldn’t, I knew enough that it wasn’t going to work.
I wonder why people do this. You wouldn’t apply to a welding job if you can’t weld. Why so many people apply to programming positions if they can’t actually code (or a database analyst position without knowing SQL)?
Some people seem to think you can just Google stuff or more recently use AI to do the coding, not knowing that being a dev is mostly about knowing what to search and that being a dev isn’t just coding.
I mean, Google and AI can be really helpful, but you should be able to do stuff without it. Google won’t help you if you have a problem with a customer/company specific problem that requires knowledge about the whole technical infrastructure.
I love when cheaters fail to prosper.
Back when I still used Reddit, so many posts were just CS students trying to get other Redditors to do their homework for them. I don’t think I ever came across any technical interview cheaters, but I’m sure there were some.
I remember one interview I had with a candidate. It was for a database analyst position that required SQL.
The first round was typically a phone screen where I chat with the candidate, get to know them a bit.
Second round was code review. I asked them to do a SQL query that did x.
The queries were simple. The goal was to get the candidate to walk through the query.
I had one candid that, over screen share, wrote the query flawlessly. Then I asked them to explain what it was doing. The candidate froze.
I can get understand getting nervous so I moved onto an insert statement. I had them write one and then do another without using certain terms (often leading to a sub query).
Again, flawless. I asked what situations would you use one over the other.
Again, they froze. I started to get suspicious that they were cheating and had them, instead of typing the answer, say the answer. When they couldn’t, I knew enough that it wasn’t going to work.
I wonder why people do this. You wouldn’t apply to a welding job if you can’t weld. Why so many people apply to programming positions if they can’t actually code (or a database analyst position without knowing SQL)?
Some people seem to think you can just Google stuff or more recently use AI to do the coding, not knowing that being a dev is mostly about knowing what to search and that being a dev isn’t just coding.
I mean, Google and AI can be really helpful, but you should be able to do stuff without it. Google won’t help you if you have a problem with a customer/company specific problem that requires knowledge about the whole technical infrastructure.