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I sent my resume in to this very small company and I was able to get a phone interview with them. I passed the phone screen questions (tell me about yourself, some questions about programming, linux, networking, multithreading). Now they want to schedule an in-person interview with me.

They know that I am pretty much a beginner but they were impressed with the knowledge I showed on the phone interview. I gave overly-technical, over explained answers to some of their questions. When they asked about networking/multithreading I told them I had basic knowledge of those areas. They asked simple beginner questions with respect to those topics. With that in mind I guess they aren't expecting much from me, but still they want to interview me. What questions would be asked in this situation?

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  • With the in person interview, you will be judged more on your body language and presentation then on the questions they ask. That was for the phone interview. They are bringing you in to get a 'feel' for you, how you mesh with the team, and if anything is off about you. While you may be asked more detailed questions - primarily the above will apply more with this type of interview. – SQLSavant Feb 17 '15 at 1:03
  • How about asking them directly? We've got this sort of questions from candidates all the time, and we find it a perfectly normal and reasonable question. You can't be expected to do well unless you are informed of what to expect. (obviously, no one is going to tell you the specific questions) – JasonK Feb 17 '15 at 4:59
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There can be the whiteboard programming question that while the problem could be as simple as reversing a string, the key is your ability to communicate how are solving this, how are you catching mistakes, how are you clarifying requirements and other things that could be the minefield that these can be at times. In the case of reversing a string, if the string is empty then what does your code do? If the string is odd length, does this work? What about even length? Does it do it in place or do you allocate new strings each time?

There will likely also be various behavioral questions I'd suspect. "Tell me about a time when...." questions that show how you handle conflict, failure and other things that can help separate you from others. At the same time, there can also be the question of what questions do you bring into the interview to show that you've done some work to know the company and want this job?

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As someone who's gone through a programming (with internships) diploma, I've had in the vicinity of 35-40 developer interviews. It's hard to sum them all into one post, but there were many commonalities between them.

In general, the more technical the position you're interviewing for, the more likely you will be asked technical questions to prove that you 'get' it, it being development. On the other hand, if the technical requirements aren't very intensive you might be thrown a few soft-ball questions to prove that you're not completely oblivious. If you're a junior, they likely know this, and won't throw you anything over the top, but you may sweat a bit. Problematically, you likely won't know what you're going to be asked, so there isn't much of a way to prepare. Just be prepared to answer a technical question under pressure.

Outside of that, if you've got the interview they likely already think you're capable of filling the position to some degree, so the next step is showing off your social graces and that you can fit in with the team. That said, there is a chance that, no matter how socially adept you are, your personality just doesn't meld with the company. That's why I don't like to think of interviews as interviews so much as I do 'business meetings' to see if you and the company are a fit for each other.

Good luck!

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