Is it fair for a website to share interview questions publicly? [closed]

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I recently came across this website and found out that an excruciating amount of interviews were shared in great details with what questions were asked, any follow-up questions, answers to these interview questions, and possibly a rough description of the interviewer. These shared interviews concern a lot of the big names in the U.S. tech industry. Clearly, this sabotages the opportunities of other candidates without these privileged information of interviews taken place recently. I'm sure, you've all seen people sharing tiny bit of detail on their interviews on other job search website. But I can assure you the amount of interview detail shared is tremendous.

My question here is whether it's fair for this website to host such information? And will tech companies still find their hiring process fair if some candidates come fully prepared with the answers to a question the interviewers just asked 1 or 2 interviews ago. Because interviewers normally don't change their questions that often, those candidates actually do have higher chance of answering the question correctly.

And if it is not fair for a website to be doing this, what can we do to take it down so other candidates like me and you can get a fair competition?

manpreet 2 years ago

My question here is whether it's okay for this website to host such information?

It is not illegal. It's not limited to China. And it's also not a new thing. These "dumps" have been going on since the interwebs were invented by Al Gore many years ago.

(Search for "google interview questions" or "facebook interview questions" or "[your favorite well-known company] interview questions". Or look at sites like GlassDoor. Plenty of results in English.)

Even before these sites existed, many agents would debrief the candidates they represented and would use the information learned to assist the next candidate (including the questions that are being asked).

And will tech companies still find their hiring process fair if some candidates come fully prepared with the answers to a question the interviewers just asked 1 or 2 interviews ago. Because interviewers normally don't change their questions that often, those candidates actually do have higher chance of answering the question correctly.

If tech companies are stupid enough to ask the same technical questions repeatedly for which an enterprising candidate could easily get prepared, then they will presumably "suffer" accordingly. It's not all that hard to come up with many questions for virtually any job.

If they can't distinguish between candidates who have memorized the answers from those who really understand what they are talking about, then perhaps they deserve whatever they will get.

When I interviewed candidates, I never asked questions that were so simple to answer. I always asked questions that demonstrate some thought and some understanding of the process. I never asked "puzzle" questions. And I seldom repeated the same question.

In my experience, hiring tech workers isn't like handing out an SAT test or entrance exam (or at least it shouldn't be).