Job description: designing and building microservices and API contracts for enterprise use. Deep understanding of api/rest design, AWS, etc.

Interview: in this weird IDE while I stare over you, go through and parse this multi-dimensional primitive array using recursion.

...Wtf does this have to do with the role?

Oh yeah the typical array employment exam lol 😂

@Devnergy yep! Cause we ALL use that every day in our jobs! The perfect way to spec people 🤦🏻‍♂️. Forget about what you will ACTUALLY do at work.

@NotABugAFeature I think they want to know if you can traverse the array for API purposes (JSON).

I can remember before, I was given an employment exam - TO FIX AN ACTUAL BUG IN THEIR SYSTEM - To know if I was any good or not LOL.

I was like wtf is this? Working for free? Well since I was just a high paid slave I just did it and end up being hired and sent to AU. LOL

@Devnergy if that was the case it wouldn’t be a primitive array. It would be a List (this happened to be in Java). And I could show that I’m keeping up with coding standards and streams, lambdas etc.

but no. This was a primitive 2d array and looping through it trying to calculate the longest chain of like values both horizontally and vertically. Which I get is a semi challenging algorithm question and for a job that requires extremely efficient algorithms for complicated use cases, I get. But for a job that is designing and architecting microservices that are part of a supply chain? You aren’t doing anything close to that. I’m sorry.

It’s not that it’s an unfair or impossible problem (though using a web api with no debug is BS). It’s that it is testing the wrong skill sets. Especially when writing it while being watched over. No one works that way.

@NotABugAFeature maybe the HR don't want you to pass the job interview because your asking salary is too high? There can be a lot of factors in this - which I'm just guessing

@Devnergy honestly just seemed like a stupid interviewer. I didn’t ask anything about salary yet- all I knew was the scale was above what I currently make. This was through a recruiter and it seemed potentially like an improved opportunity.

I’m not even upset that I probably won’t get the role. I’m more upset about the two hours wasted on this.

And btw if anyone thinks I’m wrong and this is legit how all interviews are please tell me. I would actually appreciate knowing so I can mentally prepare for this. All I know is I give interviews in my role and we purposely shape them where the questions and tasks we ask are specific to the role.

I don't know about the interview of yours, but I had interviews in my life where they asked strange questions alot just to find the range of my knowledge. Maybe they have more open roles, which have higher priority with even higher payment. If you do well maybe they offer you that.

Long story short, I don't see why the question doesn't fit the role in the first place. Building Microservices means IMHO you should be able to develop basic stuff like that.