I got a written interview test as the first step in the hiring process. I submitted the solutions and got a rejection. To understand how I could perform better, I asked the hiring manager for a feedback and his reply was the following:
"Given the unique nature of the work at Penny, we're looking for people with a unique set of skills. That extends beyond coding abilities into areas such as empathy, written communication style, and values. In your case, you did reasonably well on the coding section but weren't quite a fit in the other areas.
Hope that helps!"
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I would agree with the manager about improving my written communication skills. However, I wouldn't agree with him regarding the rest of his justification.
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This is the list of questions I was asked and my answers.
Writing
Question 1
The data suggests that a significant number of members have low credit scores primarily
because of late credit card payments. Why do you think so many people have trouble with
credit card payments?
Not enough notifications from companies.
Missed reporting from the companies.
Misaligned salary and credit card payment due dates.
Uses his credit cards more than they make. (utilization much more than the recommended 10-
15%)
Many credit cards opened with shopping stores like Macy’s that have rare notifications of
payment dues.
Too many card due dates to handle.
Question 2
Your uncle grew up without a computer, grabs a fly swatter when he hears the word “bug,”
and still insists on faxing you things. How would you explain the concept of an API to him,
keeping in mind that most technical terms will likely be foreign to him?
An API is an Application Programming Interface. It will have a set standard of rules to follow to
get what you want. The rules are called the request, the thing you wanted is a response. We do
not need to know what happens inside the API, we only focus on the final outcome.
Eg: Consider we have a postcard sending service. All we need to specify to the service is the
following:
To (the person to send the postcard to)
Address
Content
From
To send the address to different people, we just change the address on the postcard and the
postcard will be delivered to each one of them. So the structure/format (To, Content, From)
remains the same but the postcard is delivered to a different address.
So API is like this postcard service which defines a constant structure, where you can provide
different data to perform different actions.
Coding: 3 coding/debugging/explanatory questions
Culture
6. What personality traits do you butt heads with?
Someone who slacks in his/her work and because of this person the whole team has to suffer.
eg. In a project in school, we had a tight deadline and everyone agreed to work on a particular
set of task to get it done. However, one team member didn’t complete his assigned task before
the demo. Moreover, he did not ask for help on completing it. This was a setback and we had a
very difficult time completing the project in time.
7. What's the most helpful feedback you've ever gotten about yourself?
Before implementing a change/feature in the application, think about the long-term effects
about that change. Make sure that your functionality is extensible to new changes that might
be required at a later point.
8. What were some characteristics of your favorite or ideal group of people to work with?
1. clear goals and clear communication of goals
2. healthy competition, supportive, at the same time (help each other out)
3. working with cutting edge technology with a good explanation of why we use it
4. respect each other
9. What’s one thing that excites you and one thing that bothers you about the tech industry?
The work that we do impacts life of millions of people at a fast pace.
One of the main issue with the tech industry is that they are thinking of disruptions without
thinking about social implications of the change.
10. What’s a feature you’d love to add to our product?
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