AstroBoy09.10.2023 11:50
Kandydat
Recently (October 2023) NVIDIA @
has opened a role for one of their software products, in the specific it was related to their NSIGHT tool (C++ language related).
During the first call you have the impression that the reviewer, the one guy that will give you in a second instance the tech assessment, is someone that knows what he is doing; you have the feeling that he really appreciates your cv and that he knows which is the reasonable amount of work that he will be giving you during the second instance.
The first call concluded with some kind words: "The tech assessment will not be anything difficult, there will be some work with classes - a person like you with your experience will surely manage it without any big trouble".
The second interview step arrives and the tech assessment with it.
The problem to solve is nothing related with classes, anything like using smart pointers to better optimize instance management or destruction, no poliformism, no creational design patterns, no optimization to be implemented in any inheritance sequence, no optimization to implement.
At opposite you are charged with some ugly multi binary tree design and implementation.
You are asked in 90 minutes to:
# Design and implement the multi binary tree construct/data structure (in a working fashion - it has to work otherwise you will not be able to prove the following traversal operations which are part of the assessment).
# Implement the load from file operation.
# Implement the Depth First Search operation (please pay attention that the construct is a multi binary tree, it means that on the root level you have more than one root node)
# Implement the Breadth First Search operation
# Implement the Depth First Search, sorted variant
I personally managed to achieve everything except the last one in 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Personally, and I am speaking just like a guy that has 20 years of experience, it is almost impossible to achieve that in 90 minutes, oh well there is one way, you have to know what you will be charged with.
I CAN GIVE YOU ONLY ONE ADVICE, STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY, THEY ARE PROBABLY DOING SOME RESEARCH THEIR SIDE TO ESTIMATE THE LEVEL OF COMPETENCE OF ENGINEERS IN POLAND OR AT WORST THERE IS SOME INTERNAL FIGHT IN BETWEEN THE MANAGEMENT AND THE DEVS.
P.S. use your time to read a book instead of getting annoyed with Data Structures idioms and algorithms and an unreasonable amount of time for the completion.