Category / Interview

by Aaron

Coding Challenge #22

Coding Challenge Series / Technical Interview Series

Now that you’ve become an expert in efficiently copying bytes (you did solve the last challenge, didn’t you?), I have an even more challenging question….

You have a large block of byte oriented data representing a 256-color LCD panel. Each byte represents the color of the pixel.

You’ll need to write a Copy Image function for me …

Your function is provided: width and height of the LCD panel, a reference (or pointer) to the LCD pixel storage, an array with the new colors to set, and a rectangle with the bounds for the new pixels.

The LCD display’s size may not be evenly divisible by 8, yet a pixel row must end on a boundary that is evenly divisible by 8. The image bytes as being provided do not have this behavior.

Copy the new pixels/colors into the LCD storage.

by Aaron

Coding Challenge #21

Coding Challenge Series / Technical Interview Series

Create a function which copies byte data from a source location to a destination location (you might use pointers or an array depending on the programming language). The function must copy using this pattern: 8 bytes, skip 8 bytes, 4 bytes, skip 8 bytes, 8 bytes, … repeat (+8,-8,+4,-8….).

Bonus points for really nailing the performance of this one.

 

(Are you enjoying this series? I’d appreciate a comment if you’d like me to continue the series. It takes more time than I’d like to admit to create and post these entries every week.)

by Aaron

Deceptive Resume…. just be honest.

Ten tall tales told on resumes.

Have you caught people in lies on the résumés? I was interviewing a candidate for a documentation position years ago and while out at lunch she seemed to say things which contradicted some of the information on her printed résumé. Her tales of a “current” job and the reason she was seeking new employment didn’t quite feel right.

One call to the employer later by our HR department confirmed my suspicions. She did not have the skills nor role she was claiming. Plus, she had already left that job. Of course, she wasn’t hired.

I interviewed a guy once who had 4 or 5 years of time unaccounted for right in the middle of several other jobs. Thankfully, he had a good answer. He had decided to join the military and felt it wasn’t relevant to the current position, so he had removed it. (I suggested he put it back).

I see technical resumes which pad skills and knowledge far too often; programming language padding seem to be the most common on developer resumes. Just because your office neighbor has a book on the programming language Python shouldn’t give you reason to include it on your resume! :)  I enjoy asking developers about these skills — making them sweat when they realize they shouldn’t have put a specific technology on their resume.

Have you padded your resume? Do you include every programming language technology that you’ve encountered, regardless of your level of experience/knowledge?

Do you still include “Microsoft Office”? :)

What’s the funniest thing you’ve encountered in interviews or on resumes?