Programming Interviews Exposed, 4th Edition

3The Phone Screen

The first set of programming problems you’ll encounter will likely be in a technical phone interview, also known as a phone screen. Phone screens are designed to weed out unqualified candidates who aren’t worth the time investment of in-person technical interviews. If you don’t pass the phone screens (there may be multiple), you won’t be invited to the on-site interviews.

NOTE

The term “phone screen” is a bit of an anachronism that reflects how off-site screening interviews were originally conducted: a software engineer would ask you a series of questions over the phone and you would do your best to answer them, working through them on a pad of paper and verbally relaying the answer. These days, however, the phone screen is more likely to involve videoconferencing or screen sharing software and a cloud-based code editing system.

UNDERSTANDING PHONE SCREENS

Phone screens are all about determining if a candidate has the basic technical knowledge and experience required to work at the company. It’s easy for candidates to inflate their skills and experience to try to make it past the initial résumé screenings. For example, it’s not uncommon for candidates to claim proficiency in every programming language they’ve ever used, even those used only once for a school assignment. Some candidates go beyond exaggeration: they just lie. Inviting someone to on-site technical interviews only to discover that they really don’t have the basic skills needed for the position ...