C
C for Coding
cforcoding.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2009
A programmer's blog (by the Stack Overflow user cletus) on interviews, Big O notation, parsing and the software industry.
What HN saysHN commenters cite its account of the Google interview process and its Google Wave critique, and praise the author's Stack Overflow answers.
16HN people shared it
5linked it in comments
31stories submitted
831story points
13 years agolast shared
2009people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1My Google Interview3 people · 228 points · first shared 2010 · 133 comments on HN
- 2Plain English Explanation of Big O Notation3 people · 40 points · first shared 2009 · 4 comments on HN
- 3Google Wave, Microsoft and Engineers Running the Asylum3 people · 6 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 4Stackoverflow, Advertising and the Ethics of a Free Lunch2 people · 44 points · first shared 2009 · 28 comments on HN
- 5JMD, Markdown and a Brief Overview of Parsing and Compilers2 people · 5 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 6Joel Inc., Stackoverflow Careers and Jumping Shark1 people · 126 points · first shared 2009 · 49 comments on HN
- 7Interview Programming Problems Done Right1 people · 92 points · first shared 2012 · 79 comments on HN
- 8How to Resign Gracefully1 people · 44 points · first shared 2010 · 46 comments on HN
- 9Stackoverflow: Joel and Jeff want VC Money? Say What?1 people · 43 points · first shared 2010 · 7 comments on HN
- 10Did Michael Arrington Screw Jason Calacanis and the State of California?1 people · 41 points · first shared 2010 · 14 comments on HN
- 11ORMs vs SQL: The JPA Story1 people · 37 points · first shared 2013 · 21 comments on HN
- 12Hard Numbers on Stackoverflow Careers1 people · 34 points · first shared 2009 · 33 comments on HN
- 13It’s Time We Stopped Rewarding Projects with Crappy Documentation1 people · 31 points · first shared 2009 · 35 comments on HN
- 14Programming Puzzles, Chess Positions and Huffman Coding1 people · 15 points · first shared 2009 · 6 comments on HN
- 15Mutability, Arrays and the Cost of Temporary Objects in Java1 people · 12 points · first shared 2009 · 1 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
quintin · 2012-08-21
How do I contact you? The Kontactr form at http://www.cforcoding.com/ is broken..
zengr · 2012-02-25
I remember your blog post[1] about Google interview. Love your answers on SO though.
[1]: http://www.cforcoding.com/2010/07/my-google-interview.html
cletus · 2011-01-26
Speaking as someone who has been through the process now twice [1], once unsuccessfully and once successfully, I can certainly sympathize with the frustrations, particularly the lack of feedback.
The unfortunate thing is that Google wants to avoid their system being gamed.
There can be some luck of the draw both when it comes to recruiters (mine was excellent) and interviewers. Effort is made to normalize for that sort of thing but no system is perfect.
My experience has been that the top tier companies are all selective and keen to avoid false positives. Google is really no different in this regard.
I can say that being a Googler of only a few months now it is an amazing place to work and well worth the effort, frustrations notwithstanding.
[1]: http://www.cforcoding.com/2010/07/my-google-interview.html
libria · 2012-05-22
I'd say Joel Spolsky is somewhat unique in this, although Google has had bias for C++ in the past [1]. Spolsky has long been an advocate for expecting developers to be competent in C [2].
[1] http://www.cforcoding.com/2010/07/my-google-interview.html
[2] http://scott.yang.id.au/2008/04/joel-spolsky-and-jeff-atwood-on-learni…
invisiblefunnel · 2011-02-15
Cletus' Wave blog post: http://www.cforcoding.com/2010/08/google-wave-microsoft-and-engineers.…