I was once asked in a web development interview how to asynchronously fetch a resource. I answered something to the effect of "you just add a `true` parameter in the xhr.open() call somewhere, probably the second or third parameter" without being too specific about it since I did not have it memorized.
The interviewer did not accept this response and after every rebuttal of mine he just responded with "no" each time without elaboration or clarification. He eventually gave up trying to coax me toward his accepted answer, apparently thinking he had outwitted me, and revealed to me that the correct answer he was looking for was to use "dollar q". I asked for a clarification on what he meant by "dollar q" but he was unable to clarify.
It was only after the interview was over that I realized he was referencing angularjs and its built-in "$q" service that handles asynchronous fetching. I had not used angularjs before this interview (still haven't) and nowhere during the interview was angularjs mentioned by name. The question was also in no way leading to an answer assuming usage of angularjs either.
I'm left to conclude that he thought angularjs was synonymous with web development and that "dollar q" was the one and only way to fetch resources asynchronously.
TL;DR: how confident are we in these interviewer evaluation scores? Do we always presume superior competency of interviewers over interviewees?
Ha. As far as I know, in their first HR screen, Google still asks a question that requires a wrong answer. The answer depends on the cache characteristics of the CPU and (shock) these have changed over the years.
The interviewer did not accept this response and after every rebuttal of mine he just responded with "no" each time without elaboration or clarification. He eventually gave up trying to coax me toward his accepted answer, apparently thinking he had outwitted me, and revealed to me that the correct answer he was looking for was to use "dollar q". I asked for a clarification on what he meant by "dollar q" but he was unable to clarify.
It was only after the interview was over that I realized he was referencing angularjs and its built-in "$q" service that handles asynchronous fetching. I had not used angularjs before this interview (still haven't) and nowhere during the interview was angularjs mentioned by name. The question was also in no way leading to an answer assuming usage of angularjs either.
I'm left to conclude that he thought angularjs was synonymous with web development and that "dollar q" was the one and only way to fetch resources asynchronously.
TL;DR: how confident are we in these interviewer evaluation scores? Do we always presume superior competency of interviewers over interviewees?