Maximum PC

I had a job interview for a software engineer position this morning. it went pretty good I think.

anyhoo, they said the next step if they call me back is that they'll do a programming test (and to plan to take about 4 hours to do it).

Basically, I'm looking for help on what kind of test they'll probabbly throw at me. Four hours seems like a long time so I wonder what kind of stuff they might do that would take that long?!?!

What industry? What type of position? Hard to give any advice w/o narrowing down the possibilities some.

If it is a Java, C++, C# or VB position, it won't hurt to go over to TopCoder and just start crunching out problems to make sure you don't have any language difficulties (ie. know what is available in the API - way too many people don't know about built-in data structures like Maps!).

Four hours isn't all that long if they expect you to come up with the design. You might want to brush up on design patterns as well in that case.

software engineer for a company that makes accounting systems that run on linux. well they use linux for the backend but they use 4GL that lets them create software that will run on linux, windows, mac, console, etc.

but that doesn't matter since they know no one will know the 4GL and they plan to spend a few weeks teaching you once you're hired.

basically they just want to do a test of problem solving capabilities. The guy said they'll just sit you down infront of a linux box and let you go to work... any language you want.

I'll do c++ since i know that best.

I'll take a look at the topcoder thing. that should work good. I just need to get my mind into the right zone.

That should work well

Read a lot about the STL and make sure you remember everything you can so you don't have to waste time looking something up. Make sure you know why you sometimes need to declare a function cost and why you sometimes need to use 'typename' and sometimes you don't.

How is the TopCoder training going? I forgot to mention, and probably should announce it here, TopCoder seems to really be picking up in terms of contract jobs.

One of their reps called me up a couple of months ago asking if I were interested in doing some contract work in Florida. And that was w/o having added my last two jobs, both compsci/developer related, to my job info. Just another option.... and a pretty damn good one based on how much he said they would pay.

So what happened?

well they finally got back to me... things aren't working out exactly as planned. they're still going forward with interviews (and they want me to come in) but they aren't planning to hire anyone until like middle of september now. blah!

haven't had a change to start with the topcoder but now that i know i have the test i'll get cracking on it...