Tech/Basics/Interview Questions
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Technical interviews are delicate dances to understand if a person knows what they claim to know.
- What is a README file and what belongs in it?
- A question to understand knowledge around documentation and customer assistance.
- Basic
- Documentation about how to use or install a project.
- Advanced
- Source of truth for the software to gain insight into how and where to gain more information
- Sections like "About", "Installation", "Compiling", "Usage", and "Credits"
- Very Advanced
- A link to the upstream version of the README for verification of truth
- In networking what is a MAC and how is it used?
- An investigation of knowledge around network basics
- Basic
- 6 byte, 48 bit size and false understanding of the name.
- Advanced
- Media Access Control used in the DATA link layer, currently 6 byte with the process started to migrate to an 8 byte size.
- Discusses MAC duplication, MAC table/database sizes.
- In an operating system how does a linker work?
- An investigation around how a system relies on shared libraries.
- Basic
- Little to no understanding. Knows that a library needs installed.
- Advanced
- Discussion about static vs dynamic binary blobs and library search precedence.
- Discussion around versioning systems and file system links
- In an IPv4 addressing system please describe "192.168.1.1/24"?
- Simple networking question to understand if they can communicate effectively
- Basic
- Discussion around a series of IPs from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255
- Advanced
- Discuss the network of 192.168.1.0 with a broadcast of 192.168.1.255
- Discuss usable addressing from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254
- Discuss the 24 bit netmask of 255.255.255.0
- Very Advanced
- Discuss the super-network aspects of IPv4
- What is an orphaned process and what creates it?
- A question that touches on processes, threads, schedulers lightly to investigate if they can communicate the issues.
- Basic
- A process who has lost their parent
- Advanced
- A process or thread that was not stopped when a parent process or thread ended.
- A possible result of OOMK
- Very Advanced
- A signal that the system or service needs to be investigated deeply.
- Possible hint at hardware issues assuming the same software is operational on many systems.
- What methods would you use to address a build system that takes 6 hours to complete?
- Business question that can open up some technical topics.
- Basic
- Add more CPU/RAM/Resources to the build system.
- Upgrade solution
- Advanced
- Discuss business costs
- Review integration tests and endpoint cycling
- Very Advanced
- Question the business value of any change to the software
- If only changed once a year the 6 hours is annoying but acceptable.