Written test @ Yahoo, Adobe, IBM

The companies' names are sorted by written test time.

Yahoo's problems are not too hard, but covered a lot of areas, like database, network, c++, even some iq tests. But they are all basic questions, the easist test of the three.

Adobe's test was not hard too, i had to choose java or c++ part to answer, i browsed quickly and chose c++. When i came back, i wrote some code down to check, and my answer seems right, quite good, reading TCPL did help.

IBM's test was awful. I read someones' experience on BBS, but still did not well in part I of IPAT, only 2/3 of the questions were answered, then i did good in part II and so-so in part III. Technical part of IBM's test was nightmare for me, too many questions about design pattern and too many new words for me to understand both the question and choices, like many people said, IBM is like a Chinese Natinal Enerprise, we can tell from the test.

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p.s. I got phone call from Microsoft this afternoon, hr told me the on-site interview was arranged on 10.1. Today is the first day to send out interview invitation, it seemed that i did really well in written test, and i also heard somebody was arranged for an phone interview while i was not, so i would conclude that dechu is quite nb. :)

p.s. got Baidu's rejection letter last Thursday, that's exactly 2 weeks after the interview.

Rejected by Google :(

I have been waiting news from Google and Baidu for nearly 2 weeks, and just now, an email pop up from my gmail, it was from 'Google', and by the time i saw the word 'thank' in the title, i know it's over. Thinking back, it may because my badly performance on the last problem of the third round interview. There's no pity, i think i did my best, and i was not qualified enough, forwading to the fourth round makes my satisfied.

And, still no news from Baidu, guess another rejection email will arrive soon :(

ps. this morning i visit this blog directly, but now i cant do that again, weird network~

Written test @ Microsoft

The invitation was delayed for some fking reason, but i didnt think too much, and still did some preparation for the test. At about 15:00 on Friday, some fellows on smth complained about the invitation sending system, and said they called chinahr and get invitation immediately, i couldnt wait and called chinahr, the hr said i was qualified for written test and an invitation had been sent. Then i got the resent invitation soon.

First part of the test was not hard, i could solve almost every question. Second was ok, too, although i had to wrote a lot of code and description about thoughts. All questions have to be answered in English, luckily i had practised in this blog for some time. Third and fourth part was open questions, i wrote a lot, and have no idea if i was right. Anyway, i dont feel hard about the questions.

Guess and expect that i can pass.

Onsite interview @ baidu - first round

It surprised me when i got a phonecall from baidu last night. And the caller surprised me again when i asked him if i should brought something to the interview, becuase his answer was, a pen.

I had a little trouble with finding the place, i went into the wrong building, but still get there in time. The interviewer is nice, but the questions are tough, they suck... He started with a regular one - how to remove duplicate data, while size of data is quite huge. I came up with about 3 kinds of solution, and he agreed with one of them that he expected. Then he asked me to introduce about my project experience, it went well too. Then came the disgusting parts, he asked a lot about c++, network, multi-process, i didnt feel comfortable about these questions because they are too detailed, and related experience required, and most importantly, i know little about them. Interviewers of Google mainly focus on solving problem ability, while interviewers of Baidu focus on technical detail, that makes me consider Baidu interview unprofessional. I couldnt answer about third of questions and feel not terrible, because i feel Baidu is terrible. At last the interviewer told me I will be informed in 1 or 2 weeks, and there will be at most 3 round interviews. Whatever, i guess i can pass, if i fail, it's Baidu's fault and loss.

Onsite interview @ google - 3rd&4th round

As i expected, google hr called me on 10.8, rigth after the long vacation, and the interview was arranged on 10.9. Before the interview began, hr confirmed that if you acted excellent in last round interview, you will be arranged more than one round next time, so i concluded that i got a 'pass' in first round, and guessed got an 'excellent' in second round. It turned out that my guess was right, i had 2 interviews in one day.

The third round went well at first, i introduced all kinds of sort method that i learn from CLRS, and solve quite a few questions, even pointed out a little mistake he made, before he threw the damn last question to me. I do have seen that question and i do have solved it, but unfortunately, i did not realize my solution was not most optimized. It was of O(nlgn), while the interviewer wanted an answer of O(n). I spent lot of time on that and got the answer after a few hints. :(

The fourth round went smoothly. I finished a non-bug function writting, solved a little math question, and 2 little questions about one sorted matrix.

So, i guess i can get a 'pass' and an 'excellent' this time again. Hr told me to wait, and some of the engineers are going to Shanghai so I may not be told the result soon. Just wait.

I went farther than i expected at first, so got and rejection in fifth round would be perfect for me.
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I also submitted my resume to EMC and Yahoo. There is a schoolfellow of my department in EMC, and i asked him for recommendation. He did it and replied me, unlike my schoolfellows in Baidu and MSRA, who didnt give me any response. I feel warm and decide to make EMC my third choice, right after Google and MSRA. I didnt plan to apply for Yahoo at first, but yesterday i saw a SE position which i didn't think there was one, so I decided to apply, and amazingly, an online test has to be done before submission. The test covered different kinds of knowledge, i could answer about fifth of it only, shoot. At last, i finished it with help of search engine. :)