This was an absolute, unmitigated disaster of a hiring process.

I was told they were too busy to schedule a phone screen to discuss the role or their expectations. To get any speaking time, I first had to pass their technical review process.

The first interaction was a timed, 10-minute quiz on HackerRank. It featured 12 multiple-choice questions on obscure, not terribly useful, or even unknown Java trivia. Getting 8 out of 12 was enough to continue, though I doubt they were consistent on that threshold.

This qualified me for a code screen with a mid-level engineer. We again used a HackerRank coding environment for a partially completed coding exercise. It wasn't terribly difficult or interesting: counting the number of words in a paragraph, their occurrences, and the lines they appeared on, then printing the output in a specific format. Did the output really need curly brackets around the text? Really? Okay, let's make sure we get that.

Finally, I was told the process would conclude with a 45-minute session with the Hiring Manager. This session was geared towards allowing me to hear about the role and get any questions answered. As you might have guessed, none of these things were true. He was not the hiring manager, he was barely even a manager, and you guessed it, it was another round of inane "design" problems. He did assure me he would give me, and I quote, 8 minutes at the end to ask any questions I might have. After being asked how to design a system for restaurant reservations – a vague, unguided, five-word prompt: "design a reservation system".

After 2.5 weeks and three rounds of quizzes, I finally got my 8 minutes to ask my question: "Is this role remote?" The answer: "I'm not sure." (I was applying because it was posted as remote).

And you guessed it, all of a sudden, it's not a remote role. Even in a pandemic, they expect folks to be in the office at least 3 days a week.

Great, thanks for so effectively showing me how it would be to work at this dumpster fire of an organization. I'll pass.

Interface Inheritance A Java class may inherit from ______ interface(s). Pick ONE option: Zero One Zero and One Zero, One, or more than One

Class Inheritance Java classes may inherit from _______ other class(es). Pick ONE option: Zero One Zero or One Zero, One, or more than One

Abstract Methods If a class contains an abstract method, then that class must be ______. Pick ONE option: an interface declared to be abstract implemented completely annotated with @Native

Member Variable Initialization Member variables containing the keyword _____ must be initialized in the class constructor and cannot be modified thereafter. Pick ONE option: private static final volatile

Constructor Ordering The constructor of a parent class will always be invoked ______ the constructor of its child. Pick ONE option: before concurrently after N/A, constructor ordering is not guaranteed by the language specification

Access Modifiers Default Consider the following class:

java package com.example;

public class MyClass { void method1() { } }

Which classes are permitted to invoke method1()? Pick ONE option: MyClass only MyClass and all classes that extend MyClass MyClass and all classes in the package com.example MyClass and all classes in the package com.example, and all classes that extend MyClass

Exception Handling: Unchecked Exceptions Which of the following statements is true about unchecked exceptions? Pick ONE option: Unchecked exceptions must be declared by methods that throw them. Unchecked exceptions cannot be taught. Unchecked exceptions must extend either java.lang.RuntimeException or java.lang.Error. Unchecked exceptions can only be thrown by the Java SDK.

Operators and Types What is the result of compiling and executing the following code?

java if ((1/2) && false) { System.out.println("true"); } else { System.out.println("false"); }

Pick ONE option: true is output to stdout false is output to stdout Compilation error JVM exits with java.lang.ArithmeticException at runtime

Java 8: default keyword In Java 8, the default keyword may be used to …… Select answers that make the preceding statement true. Pick ONE OR MORE options: Specify the default behavior in a switch statement in the event that none of the case statements results in a match. Indicate that a class, method, or member variable has a default (i.e., package-private) visibility. Specify the default value for a constructor or method argument. Specify the default implementation of a method in an interface.

Lambda Scope Consider the following method:

java List modPlusOneFilter(List input, int mod) { mod++; return input.stream() .filter(element -> element % mod == 0) .collect(Collectors.toList()); }

The code does not compile because of a problem with the lambda’s use of the mod variable. In order to access mod from within the lambda function, mod must be: Pick ONE option: final or effectively final static a non-primitive type auto-boxed

Thread Safety The ____ keyword can be used to define a critical section in which only one thread can execute at any given time. Pick ONE option: private final volatile synchronized

Thread Pools ____ may be submitted to an ExecutorService. Pick ONE OR MORE options: Timers Runnables Callables Threads

Tell me about yourself, what you are working on. Verbally describe a system design that takes a restaurant reservation.