The Programmer's Hangout - Haekuh Q&A

haekuh is answering Zenohm's Question:

Question: When doing the behavioral portion of the interview, what are you looking for in an applicant. What would be a red flag, what would be a flag to move forward, etc?

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haekuh: During the behavioral portion amazon is looking for specific qualities related to the 12 leadership principles. There really are no red flags other than illegal, or inflammatory behavior. In general its about trying to get a good idea about your attitude, and company fit.

haekuh is answering trashGitUser's Question:

Question: you said that there will be four people interviewing you at the same time, is that always the case?

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haekuh: not always, but usually during an onsite interview that is for a non internship position you will have 4-5 interviewers.

haekuh is answering shan's Question:

Question: You mentioned the "resolve diagreement with a senior" needing a specific format at a place like amazon. Could you elaborate on the format?

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haekuh: The format of the behavioral questions would be covered by your recruiter before the onsite interview process. The goal is to use a standard method for explaining a situation called STAR, and to demonstrate the amazon leadership principles in your response. All candidates get this information. https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles

Amazon's global career site

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haekuh is answering Nicholas's Question:

Question: You mentioned that most people don't get to any working solution on that particular question, if that's the case do they get any more help/encouragement on the following questions?

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haekuh: Absolutely. I probably should have said this during the actual livestream, but the whole point of the interview is to see how you work and think as an engineer. I gain nothing by asking you a question you have absolutely no idea how to answer. It is no uncommon that I just switch questions if someone tells me they just have absolutely no idea how to solve the question. That being said there are still some things that you should know. Its a bit of a balancing act between asking general info, while still trying to ensure some level of standards.

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haekuh is answering Toby Larone's Question:

Question: I think there will be a few people here that do not yet know about linked lists, nor their uses in the real world. Could you give a real world use case for this particular problem?

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haekuh: A semi real work example for a problem like this could involve needing to copy sub sections of graphs. IE I need to create a new graph out of all the children of a specific node. The goal though is not always to ask a real world question though. I have only ~30 minutes to get an accurate idea of a candidate.

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haekuh is answering Sphexi's Question:

Question: Was the amount of back and forth/guiding that you (Haekuh) did in this interview representative of what would happen in a real one, or would an interviewee be expected to ask the majority of the questions and work through the problem on their own?

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haekuh: It was fairly accurate. In a real interview it would have been a little less hint giving and more talking about the problem. Most people feel like they cant talk to their interviewer, but that is not the case. Its a good sign when a candidate is talking out loud, asking questions to clarify any edge cases, and discussing the problem.

haekuh is answering Po0ka's Question:

Question: Generally, how prepared are your interviewed people when they attend one of your interview?

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haekuh: I would say fairly prepared. I can't really guess though.

haekuh is answering Toby Larone's Question:

Question: What's the biggest mistake you've made during your career? What did you learn from it?

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haekuh: Big question. I am lucky to not have made too many mistakes. My biggest one was not being aggressive about internships during college, and being afraid to look bad. No one ever learned anything by being right all the time.

haekuh is answering hhhapz's Question:

Question: You said when you're not working, you enjoy gaming? What games do you play?

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haekuh: satisfactory, league of legends, factorio, monster hunter world, destiny 2, many other games that will make you ask if I even get my work done

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haekuh is answering Po0ka's Question:

Question: Has anyone left during an interview and/or have you ever stopped an interview midway?

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haekuh: nope, but I have had people who were extraordinarily nervous.

haekuh is answering aeonian's Question:

Question: What's the best way to approach straight up not knowing the answer

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haekuh: Just say so. You should always attempt to make a little progress(its important not to give up easily), but when asked a question you truly have no answer to you should say so. hhhapz told me he had never used a linked list before. That gave me some info which allowed me to change my expectations.

haekuh is answering moss's Question:

Question: what is a trait/skill that you personally like to look for in interviewees?

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haekuh: a strong sense of the engineering process. People who look at a problem and are already thinking of the edge cases are usually strong.

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haekuh is answering cros's Question:

Question: As an interviewer, how do you genereally handle interviewees that have had a breakdown during an interview due to anxiety?

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haekuh: I havent had anyone have a flat out breakdown, but I have had people who are extremely nervous. Being friendly is probably my best tool, sometimes some extra positivity helps as well. Unfortunately I can only judge people on what skills they show me, so I always recommend taking several in person interviews and mock interviews to try and work out the interview jitters.

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haekuh is answering NNMai's Question:

Question: Can we assume that other Amazon interviewers evaluate a candidate the same way as you do? Or it's subjective depending on the interviewer?

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haekuh: I can say that the criteria is standardized, and that there are systems in place to make sure that a single persons opinion does not end up deciding a hire or no hire decision

haekuh is answering Toby Larone's Question:

Question: Do you feel like the interview process at amazon works well? Are you able to compare it to your other places of work, and is there anything you would like to change? Is there anything you feel like other companies absolutely should bring into their interview process?

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haekuh: I feel like it works pretty well. I wish there was a way to make the process less stressful for people, but have no good ideas on how to do that .It is way better than the places I have previously worked. Companies absolutely should bring the concept of the amazon "bar raiser" if they havent already. https://blog.aboutamazon.com/working-at-amazon/how-amazon-hires

How Amazon hires

Learn more about Amazon’s Bar Raiser Program.

haekuh is answering Nicholas's Question:

Question: Does the organization the person is intervewing for usually have set standards for the interviewer is simply asked to fill in, or can the interviewer add their personal opinion or other impressions the have gathered from the interviewee?

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haekuh: all standards are set for the company and based on the job title. Interviewers are not allowed to move the goal posts.

haekuh is answering doxJJ's Question:

Question: If you have several candidates who are fit for the role (after onsite), how does Amazon narrow down the selection process?

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haekuh: that actually happens in a process which happens outside of the normal hiring one, so I cannot say.

haekuh is answering sunset's Question:

Question: how did you improve your skills over time and come to a point where you were confident in your abilities

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haekuh: I spent 7 years teaching myself C 89 out of books. After surviving the beating C gave me I was confident enough to figure out anything. If you asked me right now to code you something in python I couldnt(because I know absolutely no python) but if you give me some time I can figure it out

haekuh is answering Gh0sticF0rm's Question:

Question: You mentioned working on an optical interferometer. I am sure it was quite a fascinating experience. How did you stumble on this project ? Can you give us more details if possible ? Please and thank you ! :BraveryHearts:

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haekuh: I actually came across it through a friend. It was a great bit of fun and the most interesting work ever. http://www.mro.nmt.edu/about-mro/interferometer-mroi/ feel free to PM me about it if you like

haekuh is answering sunset's Question:

Question: what can you do for a kick ass first impression

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haekuh: ask clarifying questions, think out loud, tell me your solutions before trying to write them down, run the interview for me(in a good way), show me you can take charge when given a problem and will apply a standard process to it, run your solution though some test cases and check for edge cases while doing so

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haekuh is answering Toby Larone's Question:

Question: If you weren't working on DynamoDB which of the many services would you like to work on at amazon?

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haekuh: S3 sounded pretty cool. I really wanted to write C for the hardware division(I secretly love hardware), but they wouldnt take me