How does getting 1 mental math question wrong affect your interview outcome?
Just did a 1st round at an EB today and had a really good interview. I had good responses to the behaviorals and technicals. However, at the end of the interview, I got a mental math question wrong, such as 58*64, and was like 200-300 away from the original answer. My thought process was correct, but I did the calculation wrong and ended up at the wrong answer, since I panicked a bit. Is that a complete ding, or will they not care, as I did everything well in my opinion. Would like to hear any thoughts!
The ONLY (potential) way to avoid being “docked” is through some form of positive relationship or good standing with someone on the team who may have influence—assuming, of course, that you’ve developed a genuine networking relationship. Otherwise, in the grand scheme of things, it’s essentially a weed-out process if you’re being judged solely on short technical interviews...
or you could be saved if you're perceived as 'normal' with an interesting background and handled the fumble maturely compared to the lot of other competitive applicants who may sound like drones (thought that can be expected), then you may still be in the running - there is no guarantee of course.
Don't try to make sense of the process, you will drive yourself crazy.
Thanks for the insight, really appreciate it. So even if everything was really good, except for that mess up, I can be out of the interview process just like that?
The interviewer proceeded to ask me the sum of 1 to 100 afterwards, and I got that right though. Not sure, if that was a chance to redeem myself… But again, 100% was right for all technicals and had good behavioral answers to my knowledge.
There’s always a chance to still be in the running—it can boil down to the good old “airplane test”: can I see myself sitting next to this person on a long flight and enjoying the convo, etc.
That said, it can be tricky to assess in a technical portion of an interview, and some interviewers like to weed people out (I’ve heard many seniors go out of their way to trick candidates, which I understand). But IMO, I focus more on the candidate’s reaction and softer skills and want to make sure someone's not a drone or lying, assuming they're already a strong candidate. Every interviewer is different.
I would go in with the mindset that it's a 'gonner', which may sound harsh, but it will help you focus on the next interview or upcoming process, and maybe you'll be 'surprised' if you get moved onto another round rather than completely let down. This is the best way to channel your energy.
what EB?
literally dont get these shit questions.
What do you mean you got the thought process correct? You just compute it in your head. It is such a bad way to testing someone's general intelligence.
Exactly - dont try to make sense of it. Years ago I was asked what my favorite excel macro was and I verbatim said 'none of them.' Didn't get a follow-up.
You can compute it in your head easily? I broke it down into sections where i first did 58 x 6 to get 348 and then so 58 x 60 would be 3,480. Then did 58 x 4 to get 232. But here, I forgot my original number that I calculated and panicked and ultimately was off by 200-300 lol.
Is that the right thought process? I think they want you to do (60-4)(60+4) + 128 or 60 * 64 - 128.
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