A friend once in the middle of a technical interview stopped speaking, stood up and went out. They ran after him, "what's wrong, you're doing fine!" and he told them it depresses him too much and he's not interested anymore. Sad, given that this is a fun profession for most of us (I assume)
I've done the same thing, at a games company well-known for its perks and benefits, but also its crazy production schedules .. I thought I wanted to work there, and up until about half-way through the interview, I did, but then out came the whiteboard and in came the peers to see me implement basic things in pen, and actually it felt like a ritualized mobbing, because as I progressed through their challenges, things got more and more antagonistic and downright rude, and I realized they were testing me to see if I could deal with vitriol and hostility while producing technically minor results .. I simply stopped the interview, stood up, and said "I've made my decision, I don't really want to work with you guys now that I've seen how things are done, thanks for the opportunity and sorry to waste our time" .. and walked out.
The CEO chased me out into the parking lot and begged me to tell him what I saw and why the interview went awry. He was legitimately shocked that an interviewee could make such a decision, mid-interview .. All I could tell him was that it wasn't going to be a great fit, the culture didn't seem aligned, and the people who were brought in to the interview seemed desperate and hostile to each other - and that simply wasn't the way I had hoped that the company operated.
People forget that job interviews are a two-way street.
I realized that day that I have every right to inspect all aspects of a company that I might work for, and that I don't really have to make compromises if I see something negative during the process. It was the right decision because the very next day, at another competing firm, I met folks who have continued to be good, close friends and colleagues, whom I actually really enjoy being around.
This profession is fun. But when the fun gets farmed and exploited, its enslavement like any other.
Fortunately I never had a leetcode style interview. But I once interviewed at a place a friend worked at and they needed someone to bring their development up to speed (re-architecture, establishing processes, technical lead) and he recommended me for that. The interview partner was their new CTO (joined the company 2 months prior). From the start of the talk he was acting almighty and acted like I should be thankful for the opportunity I have been given. He was asking misleading technical questions. I was super confused first because I assumed malice first ("He is trying to trick me!") but as the interview continued I figured out that he really had no clue what he was taking about. Later during the interview I should describe my experience and I told him about the retail app suite I was the lead dev of for about 2y (POS software + back office + SAP interfaces). He proceeded to tell me that sounds quite nice, but the previous company he worked at did one million transactions per month - hah, eat that stupid peon! I was confused yet again, because that is really tiny? I told him that the project I led did that in a day. He accused me of lying. At that point I politely pointed out that we are not a good fit and wished him the best. 30 mins later my friend called me to ask what happened. The CTO apparently told everyone how poorly I behaved and how measly my skills are. When I told him about what really happened he was quite shocked. He talked to the CEO who did call me next day. I told him a sugarcoated version of what happened. A week later the new CTO was gone. According to my friend he also behaved to other employees in a similar way. The whole story is bizarre.
I had an interview for a company in the south of England a long time ago. The first half went okay, then in the second half the whiteboard came out, and I was asked to "implement C++ object oriented method dispatch in C" with a chunky marker pen. I mean, it's not exactly a rocket science question, but it's not easy either (on a whiteboard, with a chunky pen), and in the end it just felt like it was some weird hazing rather than any test of my actual software development or programming ability.
I stayed in the interview, went home, never heard from them again. I ended up getting a job at a different studio that had a slightly saner technical interview, and after I started there, I heard the first place had gone bankrupt! Sometimes you just dodge bullets...
Depending on the specific job role, I actually like that interview question.
It tests knowledge of the C++ vtable and function pointers, which is probably a good marker for intermediate-level C++ knowledge. Especially for debugging some heinous bugs.
It tests knowledge of how C++ itself is implemented. That's not really something most people study or prepare for unless they work on C++ compilers. I wouldn't call knowing how vtables are implemented intermediate-level C++ knowledge, and I never again encountered it despite spending another ... 5-6 years writing C++ code afterwards.
It's intellectually interesting for sure, I think depending on how it's introduced it could make an interesting discussion in an interview. But asking someone to implement them from scratch on a whiteboard? Come on. :)
(1) occasionally show up in learning materials regarding virtual methods, virtual inheritance, static vs. dynamic types, and RTTI, and
(2) sometimes understanding them is very helpful when debugging gnarly problems, especially with objects that have been wrongly typecast. I.e., you can inspect vtables in gdb.
Maybe the takeaway here is that C++ is a huge topic, and different people have had to learn different details.
> I realized that day that I have every right to inspect all aspects of a company that I might work for, and that I don't really have to make compromises if I see something negative during the process.
I think this is really contingent on your negotiating position.
I've been unemployed for over a year. The lower my savings get, the less picky I can be about potential employers.
I've been ~2 months from missing rent having to move my family into a van. At that level of desperation, you're willing to stomach a lot of non-ideal companies. If I didn't get that (as it turns out, terrible) programming job, my next step would have been to try to get a job stocking shelves at Home Depot.
Holy hell. Wow that's harsh, I'm super glad you are employed now (even a terrible programming job is better than a home depot job) and that ordeal is behind you.
This lousy economic cycle will eventually reverse a bit and we will hopefully all have some more leeway to find better employment.
Done a similar thing in a Zoom interview. I had a horrible hard Leetcode question, was completely stuck and was getting nowhere (neither did the interviewers seemed keen on helping me out). I told them hey thanks this isn't my day I want to quit the interview - at this point they really tried hard to make me stay for the rest of the time. I think if a candidate wants out - you should let him.
I was referred to this company through a past colleague that was currently working there so it's possible they didn't want to bum out this person, but I actually don't think that was that - they looked genuinely surprised and a bit shocked when I wanted to stop which I can understand, it's not something that happens often at all. I think they just felt it was 'wrong' for an interview to be stopped short by the candidate and tried to rectify the situation.
