Your best / worst interview questions

Worst interview questions...

Shortly before graduating, I was applying for a position with a large electronic trading platform on their systems team. They were also hiring software devs, but I was applying for the sysadmin position. I went to the interview and there were some brief high-level technical questions before the interviewer asked me 20 straight minutes of Java-specific programming questions. I hadn't touched Java since high school and even then wasn't an expert (no clue about big O notation and whatnot or how to optimize things). Most of my answers were "Oh, I think there's an IO library or something like that. Again, I haven't programmed in many years."

After those 20 minutes he stops, looks at me confused, and asks "You're applying for the programming position?"

"No, I'm applying for the systems administration"

"Oh"

And he then proceeds to ask another 20 minutes of programming questions, these ones more nuanced and technical. After the interview I spoke with the head recruiter and she said she'd let me know what they decide. Done with the whole thing, I didn't even bother mentioning that I just spent nearly an hour being interviewed for the wrong position.

They called the next day and offered me the sysadmin position. Confused, I had to reread the offer letter they sent and finally I replied 2 days later, only to be told after a week delay that it had already been filled. Then an even more senior recruiter called me two weeks after that and explained it took them that long for them to realize that they had messed up. They wanted to schedule a phone interview. I went along with it, if only for practice. It went well, and they actually asked he right questions. They ended up offering me a job. 15 hours away (I applied because I was told the initial position was in a nearby big city). With no money for relocation and a start date 2 days after graduation. And a salary $15K less then they initially mentioned. I said no thanks, because any company this disorganized was not one I'd want to work for.

/r/sysadmin Thread