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Comment by brianwawok | Hacker News Reader

Right. Seems very doable to verbally sketch it if you have ever seen something like a fan out.

If you only worked in single Wordpress servers, I could see it a big leap.

To be fair, having worked in a twitter-like domain is a valid selection criterion for any internet company planning to handle lots of traffic. It is possible that working on wordpress servers would not prepare you very well for such a job. Being unable to even articulate a basic strategy for handling a problem like this would be something I would consider a yellow flag for a potential teammate. It would make me question whether the person would be able to help me in my work.

If someone's resume was only wordpress sites, and they somehow made it into a technical interview for a team that managed twitter-like systems, I'd consider that a critical failure of the selection process. As an interviewer, I would try and make that experience as painless as possible for the candidate, and if not totally shocked by their abilities, have very direct conversations about the shortcomings of the selection process with whoever brought them in in the first place.

> I'd consider that a critical failure of the selection process.

Me too. Unfortunately, I have no control over recruiters or the questionable candidates they sometimes choose to send in. I just have to do my best to ascertain whether the person is a good potential teammate.

Yes, and my point is to not take that critical failure out on the candidate.

I wouldn't "take it out" on the candidate. I always treat my candidates with due respect and courtesy. I would no-hire them, though, if they were not a match for the team.

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