You are being interviewed by 1 HR personnel and 1 User. You need to add/modify a code based on a prompt given by User. You need to identify part of the code to modify by yourself. No clear time limit.
Let's go to some positives first:
1. HR is very kind and responsive, you should talk to him/her during the whole interview process to gather information.
2. The whole process (from intial test) took 3 work days, quite fast.
And some disclaimer, what I'm about to say may not apply to everyone. The company has many divisions and staffs. I maybe was just unlucky, who knows. The reason I'm typing this, however, is that I saw a review similar to mine not too long apart in terms of date. My guess is that the User in that review is the same one in mine, which means there is an issue here. So here is how it goes.
I've been interviewing for many companies and this downright the worst technical interview I've been in (I've done interviews with Traveloka, GoTo, and Alfa to mention a few). The user is condescending or maybe just too smart for me IDK. First, He will only give the prompt once and it's not even clear, for example:
1. You are given an area that you should edit your code, but it turns out you can and MUST edit other code to complete the task at hand (not explained in the early briefing).
2. You cannot hard-code number of table rows in function, but it turns out you should hard-code the number of table rows in the view (wasted like 10 minutes here).
Another example, if you misunderstood the prompt instead of pointing out said mistake, you'll get laughed at. Some may say it is to test my mental state or how I work under pressure, but let's be real here. No other companies I interviewed with do it like this and some of them even offered 10-20% more salary. Lastly, no feedback even if you asked for it. I'm not talking about end-of-interview feedback, I'm talking about feedback while you communicate your thought process. Usually, you should communicate when doing technical test so that the User can understand your mind. You should just shut up here, no helpful feedback are going back to you, probably going to laugh at you instead.
My conclusion? the User want a senior engineer for an advertised entry-level, fresh grad welcome to apply, job.
My advice? If you really want to find the best person for the job, make sure you are being clear about the task. If the interviewee misunderstood, don't laugh and clarify the task. Do not be condescending. You are the one the one that made the task, of course you know the answer. Finally, don't be silent. You didn't even introduce yourself. You don't need to give tips or help in any way. Just communicate when the interviewee are speaking. Thank you.
