Strangest job interview I've had

[misterT]

This happened to me few years ago. I still get angry at myself for not being confident enough to really say what I think.

It was a small start-up company, not actually looking for a C programmer, but they would potentially hire "a good one". A friend of mine recommended me to them. I got an interview.

The Question: Turns out that in a large (C/C++) software project there is a mistake made; None of the many "malloc" -calls are checked for errors. The source code is so large that it would be too expensive to go through it manually. How would you solve the problem?

I was looking at him speechless. It was so absurd case. I tried to ask some follow up questions. But still, I was baffled.

Finally he described me the "perfect" solution: "You can write a macro that replaces every "malloc"-call with your own "malloc" which includes error checking."

I said "ok." and the inteview was pretty much over..

I kept thinking about the interview.. and the more I thought about it, the more angry I got with my self. If I would have trusted myself, this would've been my answer:

1) I would fire the one who writes so many bad "malloc"-calls that it is "too expensive to fix".
2) Only fix is to go through all the "malloc"-calls and fix them. Good text editor can easily locate all the "mallocs". Even if the total code size is very large.
3) NEVER replace a standard library function with your own implementation. That is a cardinal mistake! I would immediately fire a programmer who does that in a large software project. Or at least remove him from the project.

But there I was with this idiot who after the interview probably thought that I am the stupid one.. What do you think?

 

[DerStrom8]

Those are some great answers misterT

It's too bad you didn't say them, but it's not worth getting angry with yourself. I often say really stupid things, sometimes in job interviews, sometimes in person. I kick myself afterwards for not saying something better, but over time I come to realize--I learned a lot from the experience. I know for next time. Who knows--This may have been a horrible job! You aren't any worse off now than you were before the interview. In fact, you may be better off, since now you know how to reply to such questions in the future.

Best thing is to just try to let it go. Don't go on hating yourself for not answering the question--you're a better man now because of it.

Just my experience.

Matt

 

[tcmtech]

I have been through a few odd job interviews myself.

Even had a few that I passed their test but later turned down because they however failed my test being the people who interviewed me were so incredibly stupid and full of themselves I would never willingly go and work for them.

Odds are even had you had gotten that question correctly and had been hired you more than likely would have quickly grown to hate the place and people you worked for and with.

I have been down that road a few times now and I consider more than fair to treat and interview as to be a two way examination.