Technical Interview Questions

[StrangerInBeijing]

In order to "prepare" for the technical part of interviews, I'm creating a list of commonly asked questions. I will be adding more as I can think of some, and then work on the answers.

What other questions can you think of?

you can view my current list on my blog under "Review Questions"

SQL
Name and define the different sql join types, and give a short example of each.
Name and define primary and foreign keys to demonstrate the difference between each.

.Net Framework
Name and define the main parts of the .Net Framework

C#, VB
Name and discuss some differences between C# and VB
What is the difference between a struct and a class?

OOP
Name and define the main mechanisms of OOP and give a short example of each

OLAP
What is OLAP?
Name and define the main OLAP objects

[dglienna]

There hasn't been any replies in this thread since April, but I was going to do the same thing.

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=297694

[StrangerInBeijing]

That will come in handy...thanx liena

Will use that to update the list with answers on my blog, and post it for review / comments when done

[dglienna]

Hope I can use it in that thread, also. I was waiting for a few more answers before I started organizing them.

[estherschindler]

Those all sound like "test" questions rather than interview questions. They can be useful with someone who's just out of college (does she know as much as claims?), but they sure wouldn't help me find out if this person knows how to _use_ the technology, much less whether they're a good fit for the team. You don't want to hire someone who can recite the differences between languages; you want to find out if she can USE them.

Among the better general questions...
* Tell me about a technical challenge you encountered, and how you went about solving it.
* Tell me about a people or political challenge you encountered -- at work or elsewhere -- and how you dealt with it.
* Which programming languages do you prefer? Why?

I also like the suggestions that Scott Currie made in this interview with him: http://www.devsource.com/article2/0,1759,1714854,00.asp

The point isn't to ask questions that look for the "right answer." It's rare that there are "right answers" in programming, and the clever programmer figures out what he thinks the interviewer wants to hear. ("My greatest weakness? I'm a workaholic... I devote myself to my job more than I really should.") You want to learn the way this person solves problems, and the types of problems she's most interested in solving. (That's why I asked Scott, and other people, about the last application he wrote for his own pleasure.)

[RobDog888]

Another point is that when I used to hire someone I had a common sense test and a programming test for them to take. This would show me if the interviewee had a good potential for logic, common sense, and learning type traits. Also, in the programming test the same things would be reflected as well as actually being able to program, logic decisions, performance, etc.

You can not find these things out from a basic Q and A session verbially.

[pmsprasa]

Try this one for interview questions and answers
http://www.faiqs.com