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Interview questions gone wrong...

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  • A Alvaro Mendez

    Nishant Sivakumar wrote:

    How will that help determine if a number is a power of 2? Powers of 2 are 1,2,4,8,16,32...

    Oops, perhaps he meant multiple of 2. :-O At least, that's what I understood. :~ Alvaro


    If [God] knows what we are going to do then we have no free will and are just characters in a play written by him. Without free will, morality for humans makes no sense. Without free will and morality, any sort of punishment or reward system loses any justification. Heaven and hell would be places where [God] could watch the souls he created, predestined just for eternal happiness or agony. - Mark Thomas

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    AmitDey
    wrote on last edited by
    #27

    The interviewer meant POWER of 2 ie..1,2,4,8,16,32 and i believe, (((x&(x-1))+1)==2*x) is the right answer.... coz any power of 2 will be of the form 00001000.... and x-1 will of form 00000111.... Now when we do x&(x-1)...ie. bitwise and we get 00001000... 00000111... ------------ 00001111... whichh is 1 less than 0001000 ...(x*2)

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    • S Shog9 0

      Fuzzychaos wrote:

      Anyone have other mixed up interview questions?

      "Have you ever had problems with a co-worker?" Yeah, just don't answer that one. Definitely don't launch into long stories. :-o

      ---- Scripts i’ve known... CPhog 1.8.2 - make CP better. Forum Bookmark 0.2.5 - bookmark forum posts on Pensieve Print forum 0.1.2 - printer-friendly forums Expand all 1.0 - Expand all messages In-place Delete 1.0 - AJAX-style post delete Syntax 0.1 - Syntax highlighting for code blocks in the forums

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      BoneSoft
      wrote on last edited by
      #28

      Yeah, that's like "do I look fat in these pants?" or "do you like that girl?" There are around 14,000 answers to those questions, all of which are incorrect.


      Try code model generation tools at BoneSoft.com.

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      • F Fuzzychaos

        Had an interview over the phone today. Totally bunged the question. They asked for a test to check if a number is a power of 2 and I answered it as a test to see if it was divisible by 2! Should have been (x && !(x & (x - 1))). What a dolt I be! I was so nervous I messed up other simple ones too. Needless to say I didn't get the job failing the technical questions. Anyone have other mixed up interview questions?

        Jeremy Pemberton-Pigott
        A programmer with a dream can accomplish anything. So, start by implementing your castle in the clouds and then working on its interface to a foundation :-D Quote by: Jeremy Pemberton-Pigott
        New Dawn Engineering

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        BoneSoft
        wrote on last edited by
        #29

        Had a phone interview once where on question 3 they said, "Can you tell me in code how to determine if any given number is a prime number in the most optimized algorythm? Go ahead, we'll wait..." Phukers! My reply started with something like "Um uhhh durhh..." Didn't get that job, perhaps a blessing. Then recently, had a phone interview where they gave me several language questions, then asked "If you needed a windows app to listen on another thread for a web service response, how would you implement that design-wise?" My response started off just about the same. I drew blank. My brain was screaming "NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION!" After the call, I thought of a couple good answers, but it sucks when that happens in an interview because then you're thinking about solutions for that stupid scenario for DAYS. Jury's still out on that position...


        Try code model generation tools at BoneSoft.com.

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        • A AmitDey

          The interviewer meant POWER of 2 ie..1,2,4,8,16,32 and i believe, (((x&(x-1))+1)==2*x) is the right answer.... coz any power of 2 will be of the form 00001000.... and x-1 will of form 00000111.... Now when we do x&(x-1)...ie. bitwise and we get 00001000... 00000111... ------------ 00001111... whichh is 1 less than 0001000 ...(x*2)

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          Ivan Milanov
          wrote on last edited by
          #30

          AmitDey wrote:

          Now when we do x&(x-1)...ie. bitwise and we get 00001000... 00000111... ------------ 00001111...

          :confused: This "&" is the bitwise operator for the logical function AND, so, with it you would get 00001000... 00000111... ----------- with operator & 00000000... What you need is the bitwise operator for the logical function OR. The operator is "|" so this operator would be the correct one, hence the expression is "x|(x-1)" 00001000... 00000111... ----------- with operator | 00001111...

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          • A AmitDey

            The interviewer meant POWER of 2 ie..1,2,4,8,16,32 and i believe, (((x&(x-1))+1)==2*x) is the right answer.... coz any power of 2 will be of the form 00001000.... and x-1 will of form 00000111.... Now when we do x&(x-1)...ie. bitwise and we get 00001000... 00000111... ------------ 00001111... whichh is 1 less than 0001000 ...(x*2)

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            Mikon Dosogne
            wrote on last edited by
            #31

            I think you meant x|(x-1)... But there is another way: x&(~(x-1))==x 00001000... = x 00000111... = x-1 11111000... = ~(x-1) 00001000... = x&(~(x-1)) This should work even if x = 2 (...0000001) or x = (1000000...) Mikon Dosogne

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            • M Mikon Dosogne

              I think you meant x|(x-1)... But there is another way: x&(~(x-1))==x 00001000... = x 00000111... = x-1 11111000... = ~(x-1) 00001000... = x&(~(x-1)) This should work even if x = 2 (...0000001) or x = (1000000...) Mikon Dosogne

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              bezorn
              wrote on last edited by
              #32

              How about this: x&(x-1)==0

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              • B bezorn

                How about this: x&(x-1)==0

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                Mikon Dosogne
                wrote on last edited by
                #33

                Even better! But did you google the answer? ;)

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                • I Intellisense

                  I agree that those types of questions are probably more about the interviewer's ego than finding the skill level of the applicant. But, that question made me think, a little.:doh: Consider this. All powers of 2, in binary are in the following form: 01, 10, 100, 1000, 10000 etc... which of course is 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc... So the easy way to tell is just any number that in binary is a single 1 followed by all zeros.

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                  Amar Chaudhary
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #34

                  sum all binary and result should be 1 eg : 8= 1000 (bin) 1+0+0+0 =1 // convert binary to string replace '0' with '' check if string length is 1 // ;) and you can explain them this is the most optimesed way it can be cause all the interviwer are not techies they are mostly from hr dept with some questoins (limited) and even if they belong programming they dont prove you wrong so you are right ;) -- modified at 13:24 Tuesday 19th September, 2006

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                  • M Mikon Dosogne

                    Even better! But did you google the answer? ;)

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                    bezorn
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #35

                    Mikon Dosogne wrote:

                    But did you google the answer?

                    Nah, I stumbled on it while working out some math examples using your solution! :) Couldn't of done it without you! :-D:P

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                    • F Fuzzychaos

                      Had an interview over the phone today. Totally bunged the question. They asked for a test to check if a number is a power of 2 and I answered it as a test to see if it was divisible by 2! Should have been (x && !(x & (x - 1))). What a dolt I be! I was so nervous I messed up other simple ones too. Needless to say I didn't get the job failing the technical questions. Anyone have other mixed up interview questions?

                      Jeremy Pemberton-Pigott
                      A programmer with a dream can accomplish anything. So, start by implementing your castle in the clouds and then working on its interface to a foundation :-D Quote by: Jeremy Pemberton-Pigott
                      New Dawn Engineering

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                      Neutromancer
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #36

                      I was asked in an interview to write the algorithm to find n numbers in the Fibonacci series, or whatever. I misunderstood them so I accidentally wrote a program that printed on the screen a large phallic figure, and to decode the words corresponding to the acronym "YUCK FOU", and quickly left.

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                      • P Polymorpher

                        Right bracket, x, logical and, not, right bracket, x, binary and, right bracet, x - 1, left bracket, left bracket, left bracket ;)

                        Pablo Sometimes I think there's no reason to get out of bed . . . then I feel wet, and I realize there is.

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                        NormDroid
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #37

                        Polymorpher wrote:

                        Pablo Sometimes I think there's no reason to get out of bed . . . then I feel wet, and I realize there is.

                        :laugh::omg::wtf:

                        We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them. Steve Jobs

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                        • N NormDroid

                          Polymorpher wrote:

                          Pablo Sometimes I think there's no reason to get out of bed . . . then I feel wet, and I realize there is.

                          :laugh::omg::wtf:

                          We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them. Steve Jobs

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                          Polymorpher
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #38

                          LOL, I found that on a homer simpson sight.;P

                          Pablo Sometimes I think there's no reason to get out of bed . . . then I feel wet, and I realize there is.

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                          • A Amar Chaudhary

                            sum all binary and result should be 1 eg : 8= 1000 (bin) 1+0+0+0 =1 // convert binary to string replace '0' with '' check if string length is 1 // ;) and you can explain them this is the most optimesed way it can be cause all the interviwer are not techies they are mostly from hr dept with some questoins (limited) and even if they belong programming they dont prove you wrong so you are right ;) -- modified at 13:24 Tuesday 19th September, 2006

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                            Polymorpher
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #39

                            Dim Number As Integer = ??? Dim Temp As Integer = 1 Do Until Temp > Number Temp <<= 1 Loop While Temp > 0 If Number < Temp Then Return False Else Number -= Temp End If Temp >>= 1 End While Return True ...Unless there is a simpler way to convert an integer to binary I think the original way was faster

                            Pablo Sometimes I think there's no reason to get out of bed . . . then I feel wet, and I realize there is.

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