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Comment by sfashset | Hacker News Reader

This is an interesting post in that it’s complaint is totally different than the usual gripes we see about interviewing on HN.

I totally expected to see complaints about DS+A style questions, some discussion about how leetcode is useless for actual job performance etc. When people who make those complaints are pressed for alternative interview styles, a common response is to suggest a presentation very similar to the one described in the OP.

I’m somewhat skeptical that this style of interviewing is any better than the standard leetcode method, but I’m interested in hearing if there people who have the opposite view. Would anyone prefer an hour long presentation over an hour long algo heavy white boarding session?

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It very much depends on what type of position the interview is for, IMO. If it's for a SWE position and the company is asking for a PowerPoint presentation about the SWE's background and past projects, that seems tangential at best and doesn't seem like the best use of interviewing time. But if by presentation we are talking "pull up some code you wrote and tell us what it does and why you coded it this way", I can understand that more for a SWE, and I think that would possibly be even better than a standard whiteboarding session (but it assumes that the candidate has some public code available they can talk about, and not everyone does).

OTOH, if it's for a position like a consultant or solutions engineer, which are positions where you are likely going to be giving PowerPoint presentations and training sessions to customers, then I think such a presentation during an interview is actually very useful, even though I personally hate doing them.

The entire issue with DS&A interviews is that they test skills that insignificantly correlate with performance. It takes months of time to reach the level of remembering how and when to use every foreseeable DS&A topic within a few minutes. The rest of the time is needed for clarifying questions and writing it all out. It only adds more randomness and stress to an already very random and stressful event.

His interview would be better than a DS&A interview except there is a presentation to an audience instead of a 1-on-1 conversation. This would make sense for a sales or upper-management position, but not a line SWE position. The reason for rejection is also suspect as that should have been caught in resume reviews. My guess is that he wasn't picked for whatever reason and they gave him a general rejection. Either way, I would much rather my career rest on my actual work experience than my ability to solve DS&A trivia on a clock.

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