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My wife was interviewed and the interviewer comes in and says "well our company is known for long hours and low pay" to which she replied "well this interview is over then."
Good for her! Most companies would not be that honest.
My wife was interviewed and the interviewer comes in and says "well our company is known for long hours and low pay" to which she replied "well this interview is over then."
Sounds that the interviewer purposely said that so that your wife could say no because they had no interest in hiring her.
I don't know anyone who would accept that statement at a interview
What is surprising is the OP's insistence that there was no way he was wrong and his utter disbelief that there could have been a better answer, and then I told him how he was wrong and why he was wrong, and why there could be better answers.
First of all, I coded with the most general case: two arrays A = {a(1), ..., a(m)} and B = {b(1), ..., b(n)} where a(1) ≤ .... ≤ a(m) and b(1) ≤ ... ≤ b(n).
If I had assumed they were of equal length, I would've said m = n or had a(n) and b(n) as the last elements.
If I had assumed there weren't repeated elements, I would've said a(1) < .... < a(m) and b(1) < ... < b(n).
I can re-explain the algorithm if you want.
Second of all, I'm not in disbelief that there was a better answer. I know there was, because I watched this video afterwards:
He didn't tell me why I was wrong, though. He didn't even say "there's a better answer." Just told me I was "completely wrong" and then apparently told the lady who was organizing the interview to end it early with me.
Third of all, I've completely accepted the possibility that I'm either not as smart as I thought or not as acquainted with the CS fundamentals as I thought. Like I said, I highly doubt that I would've thought to do where the O(log(min{m,n})) algorithm at the end of the Youtube video even if I had 1 hr to think.
Fourth of all, I showed this problem to my friend who is a professional software developer and he told me "I hate those types of interview questions" and that he probably would've failed that question.
So, in summary, I'm chalking it up to learning experience, but it has discouraged me from applying for other programming positions and I might redo my resume and start applying for other positions. I read on Glassdoor many people who talked about situations where they were flown across the country for an interview at a big company headquarters like Amazon only to have a similar experience. It's probably not worth my time to apply for programming positions.
look at it this way, as rude as they were, would you really want to work there?
I have terminated two interviews for that reason. I was doing GREAT in answers, but the folks were jerks. Just said, "You know, I don't think this is gonna work for me, Thank you for your time." And I was out of there and never looked back.
You have lived a long time without that job, and you will live a long time after the interview. You should be thankful.
God ..... that was awful. I got completely drilled by two different technical interviewers, one after the other, and then the recruiter lady came in the room next and told me they were gonna cut the interview process short because I had failed.
I have no idea what I did wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The second guy asked me how to find the median of two sorted arrays. I described two different procedures and he told me I was "completely wrong." He was like staring at me with embarrassment. What the ****? I don't think there's any way that the other interviewees had a better answer than I did. I have no idea what they were looking lol
Congratulations on not getting the job. It sounds like working there would have been hell.
Sounds that the interviewer purposely said that so that your wife could say no because they had no interest in hiring her.
I don't know anyone who would accept that statement at a interview
I could actually see a few very specific instances where you might accept the job, especially in niche industries. There are times when accepting such a job and staying with the company for 2 years, just for the sake of building your resume is a risk that pays off long-term.
Sometimes it's about working for a prestigious company, or in a position that's going to give you some amazing experience. Sometimes, having a 2 year stint doing that particular job will help you get your resume noticed in the future.
Or you might choose to gamble and take a job with a startup, where the pay stinks and the hours are long, in hopes that the risk pays off. (I know a few people who've done this. For 2, the risk paid off and paid off big time.)
This is certainly not the norm, though.
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Congratulations on not getting the job. It sounds like working there would have been hell.
