My experience with technical interviews
For the past few weeks I was actively involved in conducting Technical interviews for the company I work and for a Friend’s company. Some guys were very passionate about programming and others were passionate about the salary drawn by progammers in India. Below are few funny and interesting conversations I had with few candidates who belong to the “Why the hell are you here?” category. 
Me : Can you explain DLL hell?
Candidate : When we compile ASP.net projects they get saved as DLLs and this folder is called as DLL hell?
Me [Thiking] : Why the hell are you here?
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Me : Can you explain about your “Online movie ticket booking” website and how you used AJAX?
Candidate : Actually I worked in the admin module which do not have AJAX.
Me : OK so can you explain about the admin module?
Candidate : Yeah admin module has this.. blah blah…..
Me : OK! What was the size of the team?
Candidate : one
Me : Can you explain AJAX?
Candidate : AJAX? yeah it used for designing web pages. Since its done in xml its very easy to maintain
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Me : How do you rate yourself with javascript knowledge? (in a scale of 1 – 10)
Candidate : 9
Me : 9 out of 10? Great. Can you write a javascript code to validate an email field?
Candidate : hmmmm… i would rate myself as 3 out of 10
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Me : What do you know about CMMI level 1,2,3,4,5?
Candidate : There is no cmm level 1,2,3,4. (i mising from cmmi). There is only CMM level 5.
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Me : What is an application server
Candidate : Application server is nothing but an imaginary concept of Webserver and Databse server.
Me [thinking] : You seriously have some “imaginary” problem.
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Me : What is DCOM?
Candidate : Dynamic COmmunication Model.
Me : Oh?? What is COM+ ?
Candidate : Communication Model with more speed.
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Me : Can you tell us about your knowledg in AJAX?
Candidate : Oh AJAX?? its VS 2008 stuff!.. I know it very well. just a drag and drop control…..
Me : OK. So can we develop AJAX applications in ASP or PHP?
Candidate : No way .. there is no AJAX control
Me [Thinking] : Microsoft is seriously spoiling the programmers
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Me : Which do you think is more effective, server side validation or client side validation?
Candidate : Of course client side using vb…. No need to go to server for valdation and its very fast and if you use Visual studio no code is required
Me [thinking] : Thank god atleast we have a “server side” validation (in the name of technical interview) in the recruitment process.
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Me : You said you are working with VS 2003. How do you rate yourself in .net?
Candidate : 7 out of 10
Me : Great! Why are you not using VS 2008 which is the lastest verion?
Candidate : What? we have VS 2008? I thought 2005 is the latest version.
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Me : In your previous project, how did you show data to the user?
Candidate : I used AJAX
Me : OK? What all process you used for data handling?
Candidate : AJAX
Me : How did you manage to send SMS? Using http or smpp?
Candidate : AJAX
Me [Thinking] : God give me a break!
Do you have any funny experiences like these? oh BTW did I tell you that some of these guys were 2+ years experienced in .net ?
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AWESOME !! never known there r even worst ppl in world then me
I missed a point actually… These guys were 2+ .net experienced
@Kunal …. we are far better mate
though i dont knw much abt the techi stuff…. this is typical murder on people who interview these people…
I got relieved after reading the last line. Till then I was underestimating myself… Me a fresh engg grad from electronics domain
Even I cant answer any of them… 
@Pavan I can understand if they are freshers
..
It is unfortunate that most technical interviewers face same situations. We can understand if freshers are talking such blunders. I faced same from even people who claim 5+ experience.
There is one category people – usually talk a lot and try escaping from questions without answering. If you ask “what is .net”, they will talk about Microsoft and go though every technology they know.
Once in an interview for DBAs, I asked one 3+ guy to write down a query to select certain fields from three tables. But he was answering me how to do it in MS SQL Management Sudio tool rather than writing query. At last he agreed he do not know how to write the code in paper.
My advice will be “do not count your experience with years, but your knowledge in relevant field”. If you claim to be 2 years experienced, then the interviewer will expect that level of knowledge and will ask you questions also of that level.
If you do not know what is AJAX, then better do not put that in your resume. These terms will help you in shortlisting for interviews but you will not survive in the interview…
…and guys like Shoban will publish it in their blogs!
@ Praveen
… Correct! .. They dont know I am less experienced than them.
Good one buddy. My point is that even after answering questions, unless someone is able to actually code in front of me, I am going to be very reluctant to hire him. My favourite example is of someone who came to me with 5+ years of J2EE experience and lot of java certifications in his resume. When I asked him to tell me what are the advantages of using EJB over regular beans, he came up
with – “Sir, with EJB we can do lots more things.”
Me: “Yes, what are the lots more things that you can do?”
Him: Silence.. Lot of scratching
All my faith in certifications was gone..
>> All my faith in certifications was gone..
@Deepak:
We cannot trust certifications now a days. because…
1. Availability of dumps! – Many certifications we can get if we ‘learn’ atleast 100 dump questions.
2. Underworld certifications – There are certain under-world agencies available. Deposit money in their back account and send your fullname and email as SMS. Your certification is ready!
Addendum: Once I faced different explanations about same project from two guys of same firm. It was a strange experience.
I enjoyed reading this post as I have had similar experience while hiring guys for my earlier startup.
One funny answers for “What are the difference’s between Java Script and Java?” question was “There is no main method in Java Script”
@Praveen .. Sorry for some reason your comments are marked as SPAM
.. interesting discussion even I think certifications are “useless” now a days.. Any tom dick and harry can get certificates using dumps.
@Vijay … I am sure he doesnt know anything about java or javascript.. Good programmers always say” I dont know.. as I have not worked wit it”. But I can surely learn” ….
kidu… i thought they r freshers.. but 2+ and answers like this…
This is too funny.. !!
But seriously.. I know people who are dumb.. and earning like crazy… probably the one who interviewed them was a loser himself..
Shoban….it’s worth reading. it’s a clear lesson for the newbies who proclaims they know everything for shortlisting in IV.
Let me ask you a logical question,
“For the past few weeks I was actively involved in conducting Technical interviews for the company I work and for a Friend’s company”.
How can you serve for 2 companies at a time? Are you not a regular employee in your present company?
@Prince . Yes I am FTE for my present company. My friend (Who knows about my technical capabilities) requested me to conduct interviews (I am not the only 1 in the interview board) to get the best guys for his company. I conducted the interview on weekends so that my work at my current company is not affected..I showed the same dedication for my present compnay to get the best guys.
Hope this was a logical answer
@Prince BTW I am not an regular employee of my friend’s company. Just a wellwisher
Shoban,
I have no doubt in your technical knowledge or sincerity to your present company. But I am pretty sure that a person who works in a company as a regular employee signs a contract with the employer at the time of joining. As per the contract a regular employee cannot undertake any work/assignment for its competitors in any mode( ex. part time). So that I asked this question. I am not intended an offensive remark.
Prince
Seriously!!
It was awesome. I’m not from engg. backgroud, but had a lot of engg. friends. I used to think WTF?! of them when they do not even know some concepts I can understand.
There’s some problem with ‘education’ in this part of the world!
i think it is important to be very specific in terms of technical question other wise u get screwed. Lots of programmer dont know much about tehnical term apart from what they been doing or coding.. Nerd!! Like FOSS?? ;D
this all is just because of IT gaints(Infi,tcs & wipro) what they do we all know…just ticket solving and maintenance. No technical work