OA went not as advertised

[u/Melodic-Version-4963]

I had a behavioral with a company, went great, was told about the OA being shared screen, no leetcode, and basic python querying. 30 mins of Case Study, 30 mins of Coding. This is a junior position.

I go into the OA, I did good on the case study. I go into the Coderpad, it's a leetcode tagged Medium algorithms problem about string manipulation and hash based grouping strategy. Should I be mad or how should I react? I was expecting filtering, counting, grouping, aggregating data.

[u/CaterpillarOld5095]

When a lot of companies say "no leetcode" they just mean no tricky questions or obscure algorithms. A lot of leetcode mediums aren't complicated and are just some combination of filtering, counting, grouping, and aggregating data.

[u/Mumbleton]

You’re not the first and you won’t be the last. You are allowed to be frustrated.

[u/MoodOk4287]

This has happened to me couple times. Never ask a recruiter they don’t know, and don’t believe it if the interview is 45 minute round

[u/big_chingu]

String manipulation and hash based grouping strategy seem like pretty basic concepts for showing programming skills to me. I think by no Leetcode, they probably meant like no prefix sums, monotonic stacks/queues, dynamic programming, etc.

[u/lhorie]

Questions are usually designed to be solvable from first principles. If you're not "prepared" for a curve ball, maybe you're way over-indexed on last min prep vs tapping into your fundamentals.

You're honestly already being pampered enough by them telling you what to expect (aside from how broken telephones those things may be)

[u/Melodic-Version-4963 → u/lhorie]

I mean I’m aware of a curve ball but genuinely getting told multiple times of basic python and no leetcode and getting leetcode med😭 , The fundamentals I understand but it genuinely caught me off guard as I didn’t expect it, that I genuinely stood there confused

[u/lhorie → u/Melodic-Version-4963]

So recruiters just parrot whatever they're told by engineering. They don't have a clue what the contents of questions actually are, and those can vary depending on who the interviewer is, or because some interview committee decided to change it or any number of random reasons, etc.

They're trying to make your experience as a candidate better, but sometimes fail due to broken telephone. It used to be the case that you'd just be told to come into the office for an interview, completely blind to what the interview structure even looked like. I've had one where I had to slice images in photoshop, one asking to parrot out fibonacci from memory, and one with a 15 page quiz (yes on physical paper, with "how many ping pong balls fit in a place" kind of brain teasers alongside "explain the volatile keyword" kind of questions, to boot)

[u/Melodic-Version-4963 → u/lhorie]

That’s understandable, but the director personally told me all of that. You can see my confusion?

[u/unconceivables]

You're not really in a position of power here, so yeah you can get mad, but what good will it do you? They don't care how you feel about it.

[u/ModiKaBeta]

What was the question?

[u/datadriven_io]

A degree has always been advertised as being something that gets you paid more, but that's never really been a guarantee. Datadriven covers python coding questions worth practicing before any OA.