Don't ask these questions. Okay, ask the first one. Throw away the other three.
I have also interviewed (and hired/not hired) dozens of people at several companies, some small start ups and others massive Fortune 500 companies. I've also judged collegiate and high school interview competitions and been through several corporate hiring and interview training programs.
This is not meant to say anything about me, personally, it's that I have learned that almost no one in start ups or even large companies have any education about hiring. Almost everything that we see routinely practiced is done by folk-wisdom, 'feel' and common group think.
There's only a handful of questions that any interview is intended to determine:
1. Is this person QUALIFIED to do the work (easy to figure out)
2. Will this person DO the work (not as easy to figure out)
3. Will this person actually fit in here (very hard to figure out)
Go back and re-read the interview question above. #1 is a pretty basic programming question. But what are you expecting from #2, #3, and #4? What are 'right' answers? What are 'wrong' answers? Are you trying to get a sense of who the person is?
Why wouldn't a smart person just lie to you? These questions are easy to BS. What am I working on in my spare time? I'm building a neurolinguistic interpreter to decipher real time requirements gathering. Or, whatever else I can conceive of in the two seconds between the time you asked me and the time I spit it out.
Recent college grads are adept at these BS answers by the way. People who have a lot of experience are likely to wonder why you're asking such off topic questions.
The key is that these questions lead to good follow-up questions. "Oh, you don't like memory management in C++? How do you mitigate the downsides?" "Neurolinguistic interpreter? What language did you use? Walk me through the core algorithm."
These always help with your #1 and #3. Nobody ever knows if anyone will do the work, but it's pretty easy to determine whether or not they'd be able and how they'll approach it.
I have also interviewed (and hired/not hired) dozens of people at several companies, some small start ups and others massive Fortune 500 companies. I've also judged collegiate and high school interview competitions and been through several corporate hiring and interview training programs.
This is not meant to say anything about me, personally, it's that I have learned that almost no one in start ups or even large companies have any education about hiring. Almost everything that we see routinely practiced is done by folk-wisdom, 'feel' and common group think.
There's only a handful of questions that any interview is intended to determine:
1. Is this person QUALIFIED to do the work (easy to figure out)
2. Will this person DO the work (not as easy to figure out)
3. Will this person actually fit in here (very hard to figure out)
Go back and re-read the interview question above. #1 is a pretty basic programming question. But what are you expecting from #2, #3, and #4? What are 'right' answers? What are 'wrong' answers? Are you trying to get a sense of who the person is?
Why wouldn't a smart person just lie to you? These questions are easy to BS. What am I working on in my spare time? I'm building a neurolinguistic interpreter to decipher real time requirements gathering. Or, whatever else I can conceive of in the two seconds between the time you asked me and the time I spit it out.
Recent college grads are adept at these BS answers by the way. People who have a lot of experience are likely to wonder why you're asking such off topic questions.