[salty_biscuits]

It is fun if you ever find yourself in this situation because you can play the uno reverse card on the interviewer and ask to clarify with impenetrable jargon and look for rising panic (can I assume the graph contains a Hamiltonian circuit? etc, etc)

[klyrs]

Nah, when you do that, Murphy's law says that the interviewer will be the only person in the world working on extending nonstandard analysis to spectral hypergraph theory, and my attempt to snow them will reveal that I only have surface level understanding of the jargon I just emitted.

[hughesjj]

That or they're the super egotistical/arrogant type but too dumb to know you know more than them and assume somehow you're the person who don't know what they're talking about

Although in that case bullet dodged.

[morkalork]

Well that's just it. Too many interviewers use it as a platform to flex how awesome they are. The proper response is at the end to ask a few probing questions of where they get to apply such skills day to day.

[hansvm]

Unrelated, have you perhaps done anything with nonstandard analysis on graphs (or in spectral hypergraph theory -- most uses of NSA on graphs require infinite graphs, how does that work when the spectrum might not be defined?)?

[randomdata]

Murphy's law is about things going wrong. But nothing can go wrong when encountering someone who knows more about something than you. You only stand to gain.

[galdosdi]

You gotta be careful. Some interviewers, especially the ones who are going to be peers, or worse, a peer of the hiring manager, might have mixed incentives to avoid hiring someone who could show them up.

I feel that happened to me once when I was interviewed for a Java job at a stodgy health insurer and the interviewer tried to test my Java and it quickly became obvious he was really very much a Java beginner and I could run circles around him, correcting his misconceptions. I was polite about it but naive, and it quickly became obvious he was offended and gave inaccurate feedback.

Another job, one of my rounds was with a peer of the hiring manager, and he did not ask me anything really beyond introductions, and then he lied and claimed he had asked me several technical questions and I'd failed them, which did not happen. I got that job anyway and accepted the offer, which was a mistake.

So actually, you probably don't have to be careful, because this is a good way to avoid a bad job. Unless you're desperate and need to feed the kids or something. Then feel out the interviewer, and do well, but not _too_ well. Don't make the interviewer feel stupid. Save that for after you've been working with them a while and have built up social capital in the company.

[andsoitis]

> can I assume the graph contains a Hamiltonian circuit?

Many interviewers will likely ask you: what is a Hamiltonian circuit and can you think of a solution that doesn’t contain a Hamiltonian circuit?

[Ancalagon]

OP should start interviewing just to record this exact scenario - then share it here for the sweet, sweet schadenfreude.

[darby_nine]

Sadly people with power are immune to shame.

[Ma8ee]

I suspect that is one of the reasons they are in power. Shame is what keeps us plebeians in place.

[0xfaded]

An African swallow or a European swallow?

[boznz]

Those who don't get the reference should immediately turn in their "I'm a nerd" tee-shirts.

[singpolyma3]

Reminds me of the time an interviewer tried to get me to walk through an efficient solution to elevators, so I just proved it was equivalent to travelling salesman.

[tomrod]

The answer to this metaShibboleth is only in a Adams space. There are 42 of them, but they must be specified.