Before telling you how long you have to solve technical questions, let me ask you a question.

Your math teacher assigns you a problem. It takes you 5 minutes to solve it. Is that quick or slow?

Hopefully, you’re looking at this question confused. 5 minutes might be unacceptably long to compute, say, the square root of 16, but extremely quick to solve a more complex proof. I didn’t tell you what the question is, so how can you tell me if 5 minutes is quick or slow?

So how long do you have to solve technical questions?

As in the above situation, it totally depends on the complexity of the question. A simple factual question might take seconds. A reasonably straightforward algorithm question might take a couple minutes. But a complex algorithm could take 30 minutes or more to solve.

That said, in a technical typical interview, a candidate typically solves one or two coding / algorithm questions. That’s an average though, over typical questions; be very careful about thinking, “gee, I solved three questions, I must have done great!” Solving ten questions does not mean that you’ve done well, if they were easy questions. Likewise, you might have done extremely well without even finishing one question.

So how do you know how well you’ve done?

You don’t (really, really, I promise you, you don’t!). Your interview performance is impossible to judge.

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By popular demand, for a very limited time, we will be offering signed copies of Cracking the Coding Interview, 5th Edition.

The copies can either be shipped to you (via standard US mail) or picked up directly in Palo Alto. Day-of pick ups are available.

Buy your copy at the top of CareerCup.com.

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Somehow, many candidates have gotten the impression that the interview process is some elaborate system, and if their process is different from their friend’s, it must be a reason for it.

The truth is so much more straightforward than that, and once you get, everything will make sense. Or that’s my hope, anyway.

Here’s how the process works at Google for software engineers. We’ll look at this from the interviewer’s side and from the recruiter’s side. Although this is technically just about Google and Software Engineering, the advice / structure is largely universal across tech companies.

Read the rest at technologywoman.com.

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Above image not to scale. The 3D book making software does not understand book length.

The 5th edition of the best-selling programming interview prep book, Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Interview Questions and Solutions, is officially on sale. And even better – Amazon is currently running a 20% sale on the book!

Now, I know you’re used to new editions being a couple little fixes here, packaged in a shiny new edition probably for no other reason than to get you to buy your own copy rather than borrow your friend’s. That is not what this is.

The fifth edition of Cracking the Coding Interview is a massive expansion of the fourth edition. It added 200 pages of content, growing the length of the book from 308 pages to 508. A more complete description of the many, many changes are below.

As before, Cracking the Coding Interview focuses on software engineering interviews. If you’re looking for a start-to-end guide on how to get a job a tech company, pick up my second book, The Google Resume: How to Prepare for a Career and Land a Job at Apple, Microsoft, Google, or any Top Tech Company. The book is rated 4.5 stars after 22 reviews and can be purchased from Amazon or any Barnes and Noble store.

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Gayle,

I recently got an offer from a major software company, but it’s not quite what I was hoping for. How can I negotiate my offer?

~ PV

First of all, you’re off to a great start by just trying to negotiate. Most people don’t even do that.

Much of the standard negotiation advice applies here:

• Having competing offers will give you leverage
• Know what you can get an other companies (goes back to the competing offers thing)
• Being able to quantify your value to the company – what can you do for them?
• Think big picture. Maybe you can’t get a salary bump, but perhaps you can get a better signing bonus. Or maybe you can get relocation in cash, instead of the company directly paying for it. Or, perhaps you can get an agreement for an earlier review or opportunity for promotion.

One thing to note with big companies like Microsoft is that they often have “levels” for employees, with a small salary range for anyone at that level. You have some wiggle room within that range, but larger bumps may require jumping up to the next level. You’ll need to understand what you need to demonstrate to reach that level, and use examples from your past to demonstrate that you have these qualities.

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Hey Montreal folk -

Interested in Amazon and looking for a way in? We’ve got a great offer just for CareerCup users.

Amazon is conducting a Hiring Event (mostly last Week of April, Thu Apr 28, Fri Apr 29 ) for software design engineers. The best part? No phone interviews. Interviews will be conducted in person in Montreal, with a decision typically in 2-3 days (often same day).

Take advantage of this by emailing your resume’s to rh2010 <at> amazon.com. The subject line of your email should CareerCup.com Montreal.

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Ever walk out an interview thinking “I nailed that!”, only to discover that you got rejected? Or, conversely, think you bombed, but then you proceed to the next round anyway?

The truth is that it’s incredibly hard to gauge your own performance in an interview. Usually, when you attempt this, you’re looking at one of two factors: the interviewer’s attitude, or how many mistakes you made.

Read on for why this doesn’t work: Why Your Interview Performance is Impossible to Judge

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Gayle,

I’m currently a junior at Cal Poly, and my GPA isn’t great. I estimate when I graduate it’ll be between a 2.7 and 3.1. Will that put me out of the running for Google and Microsoft? Do those companies really have a minimum GPA requirement? Is there anything I can do to offset my low GPA to increase my chances of getting hired?

~ Alex

Not only is there not GPA requirement, but you don’t even necessarily need to have gone to college. I worked with a number of people at Google who had dropped out of college. Does that mean GPA doesn’t matter? Not quite.

Both Google and Microsoft will try to use any available metrics to predict whether or not you’d be a successful employee. Once you’ve interviewed, your interview performance matters much, much more than anything on your resume. In fact, I never even remember GPA being discussed after someone’s interview.

In the resume selection process, GPA can certainly have an impact, but it’s not the only factor. Ultimately, companies are looking for a “track record of achievement,” or signs that you’re smart and that you can code. That can be one or more of these factors:

• Attending a good school
• Internships / jobs at other “good” companies
• A strong GPA (above 3.0)
• Big / cool projects (course projects, open source work, things you’ve done ‘for fun’)
• Other technical work: TAing, etc

If you don’t have a great GPA, that’s okay. Many people get interviewed with low GPAs, but they compensate with other projects and work. In fact, that’s exactly what I did (my GPA varied between a 3.0 and a 3.3).

One final thing: if you’re trying to compensate for a lower GPA with other projects, the quality of your resume tends to make a bigger difference. After all, if the numbers are telling a great story, it’s that much more important that you learn how to.

Read our resume tips on the links below, or check out CareerCup’s professional resume review service.

• Great Resumes for Software Engineers
• Less Is More: Eight Reasons Why You Need a One Page Resume
• Less Is More: How I Cut My Resume To One Page

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Hi Gayle,

Does it matter what language you use in an interview with Google/Facebook/Amazon? Most of my recent experience has been with C# and thats the language I’m most comfortable with. I do have prior experience with C and C++ although in an interview would prefer to use C#. I’m not sure if that would be seen as a negative.

~ Nick

Like most things in interviews, it depends on your interviewer. Theoretically, as long as your resume lists C / C++, your interviewer could ask you to code in those.  And they might, if they happen to have a favorite question that involved C or C++.

However, in general, that doesn’t happen. Most candidates code in Java, and most interviewers are fine with that. C# is pretty close to Java – so close that your interviewers may not notice or care about your coding C#.

Still, I’d recommend that you brush up a bit on the few syntactical differences between C# and Java, so that you can code in Java for your interviews.  Just explain to your interviewers the situation – most wouldn’t care.

What do you all think? Does the language matter?

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I (very) recently wrote about Eight Reasons Why You Need a One Page Resume.  As an example of how you can cut down your resume, I wanted to provide an illustration of how you can, in fact, fit a lot of content on one page – without making your margins tiny.

Here’s what I manage to fit on one page of my resume (view here):

1. Three internships at Microsoft
2. One internship at Apple
3. Three years at Google
4. One year at a start-up
5. Founder / CEO of CareerCup
6. Founder / Co-CEO of Seattle Anti-Freeze
7. Author of Cracking the Coding Interview
8. Author of The Google Resume
9. Masters in CS from UPenn
10. BSE in CS from UPenn
11. Minor in Mathematics
12. MBA from Wharton
13. Former instructor for 1 CS course as an undergrad at UPenn
14. Former instructor for 2 CS courses at the University of Washington
15. Various activities: Principal at Wharton Ventures (VC Group), Yearbook Chair, Social chair of cohort, Finalist in venture capital competition

How did I fit all this on my resume?  By being very, very selective:

• CUT: College projects.  They’re coding projects.  I’ve demonstrated that I’m highly technical by having other software engineering positions.  It just doesn’t matter any more – particularly as I’m not applying for coding jobs.
• CUT: TA / Head TA at Penn for 4 years.  While being a TA / Head TA does show some valuable communication and other skills, I have already demonstrated that through other activities (such as being an instructor at UPenn / UW).
• CUT: Hobbies.  It’s not that no one would care that, say, I enjoy playing squash, but a lot more people will care about almost anything else still on my resume.  Any that goes for most people - don’t waste time with your hobbies.
• CUT: Advisor to various start-ups.  Again, it’s not that it doesn’t matter at all, but it doesn’t matter as much as other stuff.
• REDUCED: Microsoft and Apple jobs.  Although I’ve already demonstrated technical skills through my position with Google, there is something compelling about the fact that I’ve worked at Microsoft, Apple and Google.  I don’t need to spend a ton of time discussing these jobs.  Just listing them is enough.  I put one bullet under each company, covering four internships total, and that’s enough.

See my “one pager” resume: Technical College Resume (2005); Non-Technical Professional Resume (2011)

Sure, it hurt a bit to cut that stuff.  But by removing or reducing those less impressive accomplishments / roles, I ensure that everyone who glances at my resume will see the most impressive things.

Again, if you need more convincing if you aren’t convinced of why you can and should have a one page resume, read this post Eight Reasons Why You Need a One Page Resume.

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