charmides

My partner was recently at one of the first interviews in her life for a software engineering position. I was surprised to hear how it went. The interviewers quizzed her on arithmetic problems and asked many direct questions about specific APIs and programming languages (e.g., "What is the difference between an interface and an abstract class in Java?").

During the ten or so interviews that I've been to, I have never been put on the spot regarding my technical knowledge. Instead, my interviews have always been more like a casual dialogue where I describe some of the previous projects that I've worked on and answer soft questions about my expectations. A few times I've been asked to submit code that I could complete at home.

I've been wondering whether my experience is uncommon. Therefore I would like to ask whether you anticipate and prepare for technical questions about some of the technologies that you're expected to know.