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| How to answer tough interview questions intelligently |
I was once interviewed for a job at a well-known search company. One of the five people who interviewed me asked a question that resulted in an hour-long discussion:
"Explain how you would develop a frequency-sorted list of the ten thousand most-used words in the English language."
Now, ask yourself: How will you go about answering this question?
My initial response was to assail the assumptions underlying the problem. Language is a fluid thing, I argued. It changes in real time. Vocabulary and usage patterns shift day-to-day. To develop a list of words and their frequencies means taking a snapshot of a moving target. Whatever snapshot you take today isn't going to look like the snapshot you take tomorrow -- or even five minutes from now.
"Explain how you would develop a frequency-sorted list of the ten thousand most-used words in the English language."
Now, ask yourself: How will you go about answering this question?
My initial response was to assail the assumptions underlying the problem. Language is a fluid thing, I argued. It changes in real time. Vocabulary and usage patterns shift day-to-day. To develop a list of words and their frequencies means taking a snapshot of a moving target. Whatever snapshot you take today isn't going to look like the snapshot you take tomorrow -- or even five minutes from now.
