[bauerd]

In interviews just give them what they are looking for. Don't overthink it. Interviews have gotten so stupidly standardized as the industry at large copied the same Big Tech DSA/System Design/Behavioral process. And therefore interview processes have long been decoupled from the business reality most companies face. Just shard the database and don't forget the API Gateway

[tshaddox]

> In interviews just give them what they are looking for

Unless, of course, you have multiple options and you don’t want to work for a company that’s looking for dumb stuff in interviews.

[jmye]

100%. Interviews should be a two-way filter. I’m sympathetic to unemployed-and-just-need-something, but also: boy are there a lot of companies hiring data engineers.

[jesse__]

Meh .. I've played that game; it doesn't work out well for anyone involved.

I optimize my answers for the companies I want to work for, and get rejected by the ones I don't. The hardest part of that strategy is coming to terms with the idea that I constantly get rejected by people that I think are mostly <derogatory_words_here>, but I've developed thick skin over the years.

I'd much rather spend a year unemployed (and do a ton of painful interviews) and find a company who's values align with mine, than work for a year on a team I disagree with constantly and quit out of frustration.

[bauerd]

The company's values may align to yours, even though they reject you. It's because the interview process doesn't need to have anything to do with their real-world process. Their engineers probe you for the same "best practices" that they themselves were constantly probed for in their own interviews. Interviewing is its very own skill that doesn't necessarily translate into real-life performance.

[mystifyingpoi]

This. Most interviewers don't want to do interviews, they have more important job to do (at least, that's what they claim). So they learn questions and approaches from the same materials and guides that are used by candidates. Well, I'm guilty of doing exactly this a few times.

[groundzeros2015]

Meh. as an interviewer I would always make it clear if we wanted to switch to “let’s pretend it doesn’t fit on a machine now”.

Demonstrating competency is always good.