The API Interview
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I had an interview with a mobile gaming company. The interviewer was a software engineer, but he seemed a little bit buzzword obsessed. Here is one example with API questions.
Him: Do you have any experience with API development? Me: Yes, at our company we build webservice APIs for our partners to use for billing and user registration. Him: Cool, but do you have any experience with calling APIs? What is your favorite API? Me: As far as webservice APIs go, we mostly build our own, but any library we use can be called an API. Me: I personally like Apache Commons because it gives me a lot of common functions that I wouldn't have to develop myself. Him: That's nice, but do you have any experience with calling APIs? Me: Well, we do call our own in-house webservices. Those are APIs too. Him: No, I'm looking for third party APIs that you use. Me: Like Apache Commons? Him: No, not quite... I'm just going to write that you have no API experience.
I had a feeling he was looking for Facebook or Twitter APIs, which I don't use. I also got the feeling he was just too caught up in the buzzword definition of API. Either way, I didn't get the job.
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@OhNoDevelopment said:
Him: Cool, but do you have any experience with calling APIs?
Red flag right there.
Him: That's nice, but do you have any experience with calling APIs?@OhNoDevelopment said:
I didn't get the job
Count your blessings!
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@OhNoDevelopment said:
I like to write my posts in very long non-wrappable ‹pre› tags so that nobody with a narrow screen like Ben L. can read the entire post without viewing source code and we all know how bad Community Server source code is I mean it makes your eyes bleed and then file a lawsuit against you for making them look at that shit I mean really.
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Do you have any experience with word wrap?
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@OhNoDevelopment said:
Him: Cool, but do you have any experience with calling APIs? What is your favorite API?
"While we're at it, you'll be writing a fair amount of user documentation. What are some of your favorite fonts? And if you could be any punctuation mark, which would you choose and why?"
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I wish job interviews were that creative...
Font: A tie between Wingdings and Ransom.
Punctuation: The interrobang, for when you want to express simultaneous surprise and confusion (hmm, sounds familiar): <font size=20>‽</font>
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Facebook makes sweeping changes every couple months :/
Any experience with FB older than 6 months is as if you never worked with it anyway.
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@Ben L. said:
@OhNoDevelopment said:
Or you can do what I do which is highlight -> copy -> open notepad -> paste.I like to write my posts in very long non-wrappable ‹pre› tags so that nobody with a narrow screen like Ben L. can read the entire post without viewing source code and we all know how bad Community Server source code is I mean it makes your eyes bleed and then file a lawsuit against you for making them look at that shit I mean really.
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Looks like I need to brush up on my html. It won't let me edit my original post?
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@OhNoDevelopment said:
It won't let me edit my original post?
Edits are only allowed within a short while of posting.
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This one belongs on the front page. Alex? :)
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I had an agency ask me "do I have experience with APIs" followed by "how many years of experience" and all the nonsense of asking when I had last used or whatever and I just hung up on him saying I don't deal with idiots.