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Favorite interview questions?

 
Greenhorn
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To everyone: what are your favorite questions you've been asked in a job interview?

I remember one interview where it was a lot of typical back and forth about my experience, etc, and then out of nowhere, the guy asks, "Why are manhole covers round?" (So they can't fall into their own hole)

After that, his next question was a brainteaser: "If you have 9 identical coins, with one coin slightly heavier than any other coin, and you have a balance scale, how can you find the heavy coin using only two measurements on the scale?" (Separate them into 3 piles of 3 each, compare two piles. If they're the same, the heavy coin is in the pile you didn't weigh, if not, it's in whichever pile is heavier. Separate the heavy pile and compare 2 of the 3 coins, using the same idea to find the heavy coin.)
 
Ranch Hand
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I dont remember any such Fav Question. But yes, since this is all about Interview Questions, I guess recruiters should stop asking Qs like - 'State your weaknesses'.

They are hiring not because you have weaknesses but because you are strong enough to fit in position. Besides no one will ever say..

Hey..know what..i am not at all good at programming. Please hire me!!
Or
I am good with Co-workers :roll:
 
Myra Rose
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Originally posted by Ritika Agarwal:

I am good with Co-workers :roll:




Should had said --- "I am NOT good with CO-workers"
 
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Originally posted by Ritika Agarwal:
I dont remember any such Fav Question. But yes, since this is all about Interview Questions, I guess recruiters should stop asking Qs like - 'State your weaknesses'.

They are hiring not because you have weaknesses but because you are strong enough to fit in position. Besides no one will ever say..



It's a great question that I ask often. If you don't know your weaknesses, then you certainly aren't working to improve them. Depending on what weaknesses you say, it tells me how you view yourself. It also helps me round out the team. Just about every Java developer knows JDBC, but we're not all the same, and if three of my engineers tell me it's a weakness, I better make sure it's not for the 4th member of the team I'm about to hire.

--Mark
 
Myra Rose
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Oh! Very well said Mark.

Well..I am not against the Question. Just that most of us(lets Face it) tend to be dishonest when such questions are asked..thats it!
 
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Hi there is an interesting thing happened to me regarding this question...Once i atteneded an interview..There they asked mostly about struts..which i answerd well..My interviewer was a lady who was younger than me..And then this inevitable question came up...as the interview was quite friendly, i told them that i have certain weakness towards girls which i thought a good humor... ...and result is still i am jobless..
 
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In the interview while making jokes think that whether it is politically correct or not. I never believe you told this in an interview
 
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gals being weakness...ofcourse you wont get that job.
the question for weakness is asked for two meanings.
first is to know if that weakness is really going to be the weakness for the team and hence project.
and secondly as mark pointed out..it canbe used to improve it..
also most of us dont be true to that question..but the point is putting the weakness in such a way that it gives job.
iknow that is tweaking the intent..but telling gals being weakness is funny.
after all boss is always the boss.

i was asked a really funny question by my interview as "why you dont have a girlfriend?"
and one more technical interview question was
"how would you program an algorithm that is second to none"

by the way i also hate the question . regarding why do u use j2ee???
well i use it because i like workign in it..and most importantly now i have experience in it. i can change it or i wont be paid as rightnow.

whenever i try to answer this questins with the plus points of java/j2ee..the interviewer tells the plus points of .net...and ask the same question again..

can anybody tell me what the interviewer wants to know from me???
 
Mark Herschberg
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Originally posted by Biren shah:

by the way i also hate the question . regarding why do u use j2ee???
well i use it because i like workign in it..and most importantly now i have experience in it. i can change it or i wont be paid as rightnow.

whenever i try to answer this questins with the plus points of java/j2ee..the interviewer tells the plus points of .net...and ask the same question again..

can anybody tell me what the interviewer wants to know from me???



He is trying to see if you understand the strengths of the language, otherwise you just have a Golden Hammer, and people who use those can often be even worse than dead weight.

Saying that it's all you know is a flippant answer. It might get a smile for half a second, but doesn't give him any reason to hire you. The correct answer is to talk about the strengths of the J2EE platform. As soon as you did that, the interviewer challenged you. Any bozo can spout off three bullet points by doing a quick google search. This was was trying to find out whether or not you can defined your opinion and if you understood the deeper, more subtle issues.

--Mark
 
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