this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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Thank you! One more question: "explain" has always tripped me up. How much detail is necessary, vs too much, for a technical interview? Because in my mind "fsck" is self-explanatory, as would be "check the inode count". Should I cover everything like I'm explaining it to a new user, or is there a baseline skill level I'm expected to address?
Usually what I would do is start with a baseline summary, and then either dive into a step-by-step on how you would go about solving the problem, or just ask if they want a deeper explanation.
The big secret of tech interviews I found was that if the interviewer should actually be on your side. From their perspective, the point is to fill the vacancy as soon as feasible and if you can't cut it, they will have to sit in the same chair yet again. If you are not sure what kind of answer they need, like "Should I cover everything like I’m explaining it to a new user", you can just go and ask them, they should be happy to help. To me, it would even present professionalism, that you are trying to tailor your response to your audience.
Of course, there are always going to be weirdos who when they get the thinnest veneer of power, will either mess with you for the sake of it, or "show off their 1337 h4x0r skillz", but my advice to that is that just stay unfazed, and do your best.
And all in all, it's going to be a numbers game, in every interview round. Rejections don't mean shit when HR departments insist on collecting hundreds of CVs before calling in and hiring the person who applied first anyway. Even if you get in, and don't get selected, it doesn't even mean that the other candidates were better, it's just someone jumped the bar earlier. Keep trying and good luck! BTW feel free to bother me with stuff relating to this, I'm happy to answer if I can.