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Comment by dixie_land | Hacker News Reader

From personal experience the coding round gets easier for senior/staff roles, even for the exact same question, because of the experience the interviewers have and the signal they are looking for (eg problem solving, communication, testing, etc.)

At junior and "SDE II" level coding rounds are just toxic newly minted SDEs trying to make it a competition between the candidate and themselves ( I've got interviewers offended when I came up with a simpler solution than the one he had in mind)

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It's true that the interview result can only be as good as the interviewer's skill and awareness of what to look for. Which will often be terrible. BUT that does point out a mis-perception of the interview process. You will do better by getting along, "figuring out", going along with the interviewers' plan - rather than trying to demonstrate your own cleverness. Not saying this is what @dixie_land personally went for in that case - but perhaps that if you notice the interviewer getting offended, you better figure out fast what you did and work to make them happy again.

If you can figure out what the interviewer is trying to get out of you, then give them that. That may or may not reflect a useful job skill, but that is an interview skill.

Why work to make the interviewer happy again? If your solution is better than the interviewer's you should expect the interviewer to acknowledge that fact, like an adult and like a team player. He is not supposed to be offended or unhappy.

I guess that depends on whether or not you want the job. This is a clear example of when soft skills can make a difference.

Agreed that it's a soft skills interview at that point for the interviewee, but I think what OP above may be pointing at is that if you've got a good solution, and your interviewer is getting mad... maybe you as the interviewee are getting culture fit signals from the interviewer?

Wanting the job might be down to you needing money. OK, use the soft skills, and make the interviewer happy. If you don't particularly need the money right now, then evaluate whether you want to work with this interviewer at all.

It's rare that you will be working for that interviewer. Much more likely this is just one of the juniors, one of the team, that you may work "with" but not "for". They still matter, as soft skill, because they will give a thumbs up or down to the boss or to the rest of the committee, and they can make up any reason for it that they want. And do you want the company to offer you the job or not?

But yeah, if you get to interview with the boss and they are a problem for you, then that does matter.

Also you are in a better situation if you get the job offer - they want you -, and let it go because you learned about them - and you don't want them anymore. Get the offer.

I agree. To be blunt, ass-kissing is a soft skill. Whether you choose to deploy that skill really depends on what you're looking for (eg big name companies, high TC, remote work, etc.)

And end of the day, interviews are also a chance for candidates to evaluate the company

This might also be because (at least back in the ZIRP days) you would get an order of magnitude or two more applications for junior roles than for senior ones.

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