The technical phone interview was quite simple. Just a basic string parse question, print the output to the screen. You have 60mins. Easy question, however, the interviewer called 5 mins late, than talked about himself for next 10, than dove into the question at the 15 min mark. You can chose the language, I chose Java. Interviewer didn't know Java to well, which was fine. My problem came with understanding the question. You have to create your own input, your own tests, and the actual algorithm which is great, however when you ask questions to help your understanding of what he wants and his response is "I don't know" that can make for a bad interview. I spent the next 15 min trying to figure out exactly what he wanted but rewording half my questions because he didnt have the answers. For example, asked how the data was to be presented, he said he didnt know. Should I store the output or print it to the screen, I dont know, Yeah I guess you can print it. I mean come on, my career and future with the company ride on this. How do you not know simple explanation/clarification questions to your own question. Needless to say I had a 90% working solution but ran out of time. Never had any hesitation or issues coding it up after I understood the question fully.
