Job Interview Tests 

You got me here pausing and answering each question as you ask them lol

I used to do exactly these "implement atoi()/reverse string" Google interview kinda questions, but with time I experienced a few issues: 1) People study for them (basically Goodhart's law). 2) I am not hiring people to work under pressure of losing their jobs (essentially what an interview is). 3) As you alluded, work is not slide pizza in code comes out, same for impromptu questions. I am looking for motivated and self-reliant people, so I eventually changed to this: I ask them to show me their best code (100+ lines), one they are proud of, and I ask them to explain me exactly why. This checks many boxes for me: 1) The obvious ones: coding style, clarity, correctness etc 2) What *they* consider good code and *why* 3) It's instantly clear if the code is copied or studied, only an author can explain the minutia At the very end I ask what they would have done differently.

This reminded me of an interview for a job I got. They questioned me about a bunch of stuff I had done. They then asked about using a particular piece of kit and the experience I had of it. I answered honestly that I knew what it was but had never actually used it. I found out later that they'd given me the job in part because I'd been honest about what I couldn't do. I'm not sure how often that would have happened at other jobs but it made me think more about trying to bluff my way in the door.

11:07 Job Applicant: "My favorite genre are games with lots of microtransactions..." **Tim Cain rips a mask off of the job applicant** Leonard Boyarsky: "Hey! It was Old Man Bobby Kotick this entire time!" Old Man Bobby Kotick: "Yeah! And I would've gotten away with it too if it weren't for you pesky kids!"

I've conducted a lot of code & design interviews and Tim is 100% right here. The number 1 thing I'm looking for in an interview is how someone reacts to making a mistake or doing something un-optimally. If there's a lot of "oh that's what I meant" or boasting without substance it's a massive red flag. So many people, even (maybe even particularly) very experienced designers and programmers, basically try to bluff their way through interviews.

I've been making a living as a solo gamedev for 6 years, but I'd fail all these interviews with crashing colors.

In my field job interviews boil down to 1 question "Can you pass a drug test" And 7 times out of 10 they can't and still get hired

As someone else mentioned in the comments, funnily this video has given me more "confidence", that would not be the word I would use but I feel more grounded. Thank you all of the giving back you do.

I've been coding professionally since 94. Im usually the lead. I still can't code on a whiteboard. My mind goes blank. At least give them an ide if you are asking for real code and not just thought patterns and diagrams.

Could you talk about your experiences with hiring people from outside of the game development industry? What sort of challenges are there in getting an industry-outsider "up to speed" so to say when you hire them, and on the other hand, are there significant benefits?

I've had almost all of these design and code questions asked of me as a technical designer (and 100% of my interviews have been remote since covid), thanks a ton for being this specific and direct! This is an amazing addition to your how to get hired video. Re: take home tests, it does seem to be the industry norm for entry level, I have not yet had an interviewing experience where a take home wasn't expected (often in addition to live coding or design questions), I've done maybe five tests now (some were really easy to the point that I don't call them tests, others were a week long and really arduous). I have three follow up questions mostly from the perspective of an interviewer though I'm still an interviewee these days: 1: What are good questions to ask yourself if you think you might be taking "People lie" too far? I've had some negative interview experiences where a semantics difference led to hostility in the interview that I had lied on my resume, (one specifically over the definition of what a "tool" is or isn't, seemed like an over zealous attempt to catch me in a lie when really we just had different definitions of in-editor tools being a "tool" vs only out). 2: Do you believe it's important for interviewers to also let the candidate know how you work (assuming they'll be working together) so they can equally judge if working there will work for them as much the same as you, and how would you facilitate that? and 3: would you have anything more to add about interviewing entry level vs mid vs senior and how you might verify their experiences differently? Thanks a ton for your videos, I know the lower viewcount ones might feel less impactful but for me they've been really useful to hold up a mirror on how I can improve, and in these really tough times continue to try to make my way.

One of my favourite personal life lessons was actually very analogous to the playlist question. I wrote an android based barcode scanner app. It was used on dedicated trigger "gun" scanner devices. I designed my ui to be very user friendly and pretty. It included a modal dialog of success on correct scan api response (you were scanning and connecting a product to a label) turns out it was a touch screen button and forced the users to take their hand off the product to tap the screen each time. they hated it. I removed it and it made their work 40% faster. I now think a lot more carefully about seemingly small decisions like that. I aim for the "rule of expectation" and side-eye any blocking ux option. in the playlist case here for example, I'd popup a notification the first time you do it with a dismiss button and a button to change the global rule. If you click another song in the meantime it would auto dismiss. In short, The expectation was to add a song. I'd add a song. There is a world of difference between a mistake and more context. I would aim to passively give them the context needed to decide if they _want_ to do this, but I would do... what they expected would happen. Alternatively I would let them make the entire playlist and have a small label saying "X duplicates" with a single prune button. I do like questions like that though. no right answer outside of "validated learning" from users, but its always a fun thought exercise and a great way to remind you what the point of ux design is.

Hey Tim. I'm here to say that i played The Outer Worlds yesterday with my friend. The same dude i gamed with for years basically starting with Fallout. The game is amazing. I love the humor in it, the dialogue is top notch and you can tell even by first visiting Edgewater that it can be very creepy and mysterious as well. It has been a while since i was drawn to a world like this. Thank you for these gaming experiences man. Without them we wouldn't be the people we are today🙏

This entire video makes me feel even better as an interviewee. I felt comfortable and confident answering each of these design questions. The only problem is trying to land an interview in the first place, out of the hundreds of applications I’ve sent in the past 2 years since graduating college I’ve only ever had 1. It was for Rockstar as a “world event designer” but I never played any rockstar games and I don’t find them that entertaining. (I only applied because I was looking for anything and my parents say a “shotgun” approach for sending out applications is best which I completely disagree with)

In academic circles there's reading lists you keep, there to show your well read and what subject you read etc. It's super common that people fake them, they read the synopsis and a review to pass off as there opinion on the book if questioned. It's a pain but sometimes you have to push to find if some one relay has read the book or understand the subject, it's that much of a problem.

I would agree that "role inflation" is the most common lie in interviews. You can drill into it by saying "what did you specifically do" but even then you sometimes get bold faced lies. Tests aren't a panacea but they are a useful cross check on forensic questioning.

getting a notification to this video while OMW to a job interview (went well)

Nice to hear you're taking a sane approach to this; I've been in a bunch (general tech industry, not games) where the interviewer's goal is to prove they're smarter than you, or if you don't know "the trick" to doing it right "right" way you're out. Your tests are more like behavioural tests, which are super important for figuring out how someone works on a team.

All of these questions are super fun. I wish any of my jobs cared about those things.

It depends on the person, but my absolute favourite one is 'ok I'll lead with mine..' (and then I tell them my most favourite bug I've ever written) '....whats the funniest bug you've ever written or seen?'. Brings everything back to humour, reinforces the core of the creation process, allows them to slowly unfold into a more conversational tone and (if they want to) nerd out in this incredibly silly world we mess around in.

Technical knowledge can be learned. Critical thinking, problem solving, communication, etc. are much more indicative of the quality of a candidate.

So I was in the same camp that doing tests live in front of somebody was the worst... Then I went through a great experience doing one and I said that to the interviewer and they let me know "It's because most people don't know how to be an interviewer for tests" and what they found is. It's like shooting in the dark without a clear understanding of what's being really solved. So the interviewer stayed on the let me know that giving clear goals of not just the test, but also what they're looking for regarding that test and then telling them what they're going to ignore is going to allow the tester to focus on actually solving the problem in the test and what they can focus on regarding the solution which won't cause them to get distracted coming up with multiple ideas and while yes coming up with multiple solutions is normal on the job, you have time to do so is the difference which is what affects the tester too.

The largest issue with interview questions like that ones you mentioned is that they in no way actually filter out people who would be bad at the job, they just filter out people who are bad at interview questions. I cannot do those kinds of interviews because I always get stressed as my chance of employment and income are on the line and I can't afford to make a mistake. This is in no way indicative of how I would handle stress on the job either as on a job I've always been able to leave the computer for 15/20 minutes and come back refreshed and less stressed ready to continue, that cannot happen in interviews. The amount of times I've seen people who interview perfectly come on to the job and are nothing but dead weight is astronomical, people study to be good at interviews not be good at the job. A much better way to interview is to ask them for a project they have worked on and review that code, or at least give them the option to do so, every job I've ever had has had that mentality.

I suppose so many of us have been conditioned to lie a bit, at least when submitting an application. If the list of expectations is unreasonably high or it seems like a company is just looking for a golden goose of an employee, then guess what, people are going to claim to be that golden goose (regardless of whether they actually are or not). If being totally honest means that your application likely just goes straight into the trash, then why bother? I get it wastes a lot of peoples' time, but if the success rate for lying is non-zero (i.e. you can manage to bluff your way through an interview, or they just ask questions you happen to know good answers to regardless of what the job description specifically asks for), then why not just shoot your shot and see what happens? It is like clickbait, it works because it makes sense in a way. Why would you click on something that you otherwise wouldn't want to click on if it weren't clickbait?

I'm a gamer and tabletop player, but I know very little about game dev or programming (picked up a little in university, but I work in technical surveying), but your questions about game designs, classes vs classless and rating weapons ect made me go, hmm, I can actually answer that, and I would love to work with that. Especially getting into the nitty gritty of mechanic design

So incredibly helpful. Working on the answers to your non-programming questions now as an exercise!

I like the way you conduct these sorts of in person interview questions because they're really testing how people think and people's ability to communicate ideas and walk through problems. They aren't trying to trick people with "gotcha" questions or test people's ability to memorize obscure programming "tricks" and super efficient algorithms like you'd see in some Google programming challenge that would generally just be better off being researched online anyways. I think that's what some people are afraid of with these interviews, that they're going to be treated like a contestant on Jeopardy and they're going to have to pull all this programming trivia out of a hat when in reality being able to construct easily understood and well reasoned solutions to general problems in a language of choice is usually enough to get started in software development.

Really enjoy these videos Tim. Come away with new knowledge but also things to consider.

Very interesting questions. As a programmer & a veteran gamer, they were fun to think about and answer.

This was a really fun video and I was thinking of answers myself. For the playlist question, I was hoping he'd have an option for just adding the song, but to leave a little message on the bottom of the screen with an undo button. That way the user would be aware that they added a duplicate, but would be less inconvenienced if they wanted to add a bunch of them.

I like your questions. I’d be happy to be on the receiving end of an interview like that.

This video was so much fun! I had a blast answering all the design questions.

I'm a amateur 3d artist and love this video. The level design question near the end i loved. I felt if i were asked them I would love to answer them in so many different ways as i do play games with analytical mind and am always asking myself what could be done better and how to balance areas of games with new items designs. Love watching your video and it makes me more excited to get into the game industry every time.

Odd as it may sound, this was probably one of the most reassuring videos I've seen in months, so, thank you very much for that!

From a usability perspective I think a good answer for the 'playlist editor' question would be to remove the old position of that song and re-add it to the top of the stack. The user feels the procedure did something, and the duplicate is pruned (or rather the song is moved to the most recent date added). I feel a popup is fine but intrusive, particularly if the user *forgot* that song was on there in the first place. At that point does the user even care about it's existence? Or, do they just want that song in an easy to find place? Especially considering typical listening patterns, where we listen to a small group of songs and things are added and removed mentally all the time. (unless of course the playlists order matters - in which case there should be a bool with a label that describes it is meant to be listened to in order. I'm sure there is some nomenclature for that)

I’m going to apply to work for Tim under multiple aliases so I can see all the hidden dialogue options and speech/skill checks.

Really liked this video. All of the questions helped me gather my ideas and opinions and it helped me see where my shortfalls might be

Design questions were quite interesting, open and easy to talk through but as for programming, despite being SE for 7 years, I had no idea to check how it's implemented or even didn't think about meaning of these functions. If I want change int to string or string to int, I use existing functionalities. Then as for "if integer is even or odd" I thought first about modulo 2, into checking if last bit is "1" or "0" for number other than 0, into asking myself which bit is used to represent sign so I don't do do wrong comparison. For average, simple answer would be (a + b)/2. Then there is rounding or float, representation if we go for it, also if we add two ints, we have to make sure that we don't contain result in same format as we can get overflow. Returning reverse string by using reverse iterator was a no brainer but atoi/itoa really got me thinking. I didn't even think before that they meant ASCII to Int and reverse as I just had to use them, not engineer them myself. I had both division by powers of ten for each digit and bit operations ideas which probably could work. Really fun exercise, thanks for opportunity Tim!

I think that take-home tests with a candidate-led review of the questions and answers is probably the best mix. Make the questions open-ended enough to allow for individual interpretation (just like how a work ticket might be open ended) and then ask them about what thoughts/issues they had while working on it, how they came to the answer, and what else they considered. This allows and maybe even rewards them for looking something up or asking for help (the same way they would while actually on the job), but if they do, they will actually learn it for real then and there. With this approach you get to see how resourceful they are, how well they learn, how well they take negative or positive feedback (if you give any)

My answer to the first question was (Spoiler ahead if you want to do it yourself, don't read this before you watch) I would make an option to insert the duplicate (or triplicate etc) at any position of the playlist the user wants personally, because some users love their songs in specific orders and the option would also contain the turn on/off button for duplicate songs for people who just want them once. You would also have an option to have all songs (both with duplicates and without) in orderly fashion, or just playing randomly.

These are some really interesting and fun questions. I would love to discuss such design choices with someone even without it being a job interview. So many choices, so many ways to approach the topic and delve deep into various pros and cons to each solution. Can't see why someone would dislike such job interview.

I've interviewed more than a hundred people in my career (web, not game dev) and my approach is like Tim's. I'm trying to ask two questions: 1. What drives them? 2. If I locked this person in a room with a computer, how long would it be before they try and create something with it? The most valuable part of an interview is asking someone to demo and talk through code they're proud of. Loads of people can code but I need people who can review, criticise, explain, see improvements and question code. Even good juniors with the nastiest python can interview well. I'm trying to find out what they do know; not what they don't. I hope to push the passion button too!

My favorite question I’ve been asked in an interview is, “Have you ever violated policy in the workplace and why?” This question alone landed me the job. First off, it challenges their honesty and experience. If you say you’ve never violated a policy, either you’re lying or you haven’t been in a high pressure situation that required a creative solution. If you say yes, you’re a person who will give honest and possibly critical feedback. Good leaders love this in an employee. Your why is still very important here. More important than following rules is your ability to articulate your reasoning for what you did. This method is a great way to find out if someone has this skill. That’s not to say an answer of “no” disqualifies you from employment though. While it does sound like a lie, the reason you give for your answer is pivotal, as it challenges your ability to articulate a reason even more. Great stuff. I really enjoyed your questions. Lots of valuable insight here and very smart!

Fully agreed here! At first when I was putting up a 3D surfacing team at work, we didn't do tests before contracts. Turns out that half the time, the artists didn't even grasp PBR principles despite having good portfolios. Even one guy with a GREAT portfolio couldn't follow common good practices and feedback. Needless to say this was a huge struggle for everybody involved, so we implemented a quick paid test (2-3 days of work in a context as if they were a member of the team) to confirm the candidates' skills and profile. I think if done properly, tests can be a GOOD thing. Even when that studio had hired me years prior they did so with a test, and it helped me better understand what they expected. The only scenario in which I'm against is if a) it's free labor and b) the company is still allowed to use it if they want. But I haven't seen that often, and when I did, refused.

great video! I know many people hate take home exercises but some do like them. Many also hate live coding on white board. It's almost impossible to make everybody happy. I have conducted interview pipelines that gave people an option to which they would prefer. There are challenges with take home exercises but I do think they can be overcome. To make a take home work I think the trick is that you treat it as if they just wrote it on a white board and you have them walk you through it and explain everything, what choices they made, what they tried, and what didn't work. Maybe they had to look something up and learn how to do something new and that is also a valuable skill to demonstrate. If they got someone else to do it they should faulter in explaining their decision process. Would love to hear if anyone come up with new interview ideas you thought were interesting.

Completely agree with Tim. In my company we have two interviews for developers. One is technical and we want to see what the person knows and what they did exactly, with details (without revealing anything sensitive of course). We want to see if they actually knew the code they were working on, how they contributed, how aware were they of their place within the larger organization, etc. We've seen plenty of inflated CVs, someone saying they did something, but when asked to explain they deflect with generalizations. The other interview is more behavioral. It is a live coding task on an almost complete small project. We want to see how they approach the code. Do they spend most of their time looking at meaningless details instead of the big picture? How they communicate with other people? Do they ask questions? What questions? How do they discuss technical decisions with their "junior buddy"? How do they respond to criticism of the code they have written? The question we want to answer here is: (regardless of technical skills) do we want to work with this person?

Microtransactions! Everyone's favorite

I hate the what is the hardest x you've ever had to do type of question. And even tell us about a time you had to x. I always draw a blank. Even trying to prepare to a be able to answer them. My episodic memory just doesn't work to retrive memories with that kind of prompt. I need something more directly related, like a similar problem. I know this is a me issue. But I'm probably not the only person who's memory worns this way. I don't mind sketching things out on a whiteboard. I actually like the playlist question. Though given that nearly every application I've ever used does the same thing I'm.not sure about it's utility. They all just let you add the duplicate song, since it's a "play list" just a list of things to play. But as a question category I like the idea. Honestly for a basoc coding test puttong someone in a room with a provided laptop for two hours seems like it might work. Lock it down to only a few things, like docs and give them a data structures book. I frequently check myself on algorithm choice to see if there's a better one, google is much better for this than a book, since csn just throw some terms like dag positive weight mst and get the optimal algorithim. I'm.not sure how you could lock it down enough to block them potentially getting help and still giving google, so book.

I use one of three methods in interviews, sometimes all three and other times only one. It's worth noting that I typically do 90 minute interviews with the caveat that they'll usually finish early. I also don't really tend to spend time on multiple rounds etc. 1) peer review, present them with a sample of work that's meant to be complete ask them to review and provide feedback. The piece of work needs to be relevant to the craft/ role I'm hiring for - some examples of what this might look like are; a status report, a marketing plan, a complete but small section of a design document and small and self explanatory piece of code. There should be a technical flaw and a "philosophical flaw" baked in. I don't take it poorly if people don't notice the flaws but they should be able to have a material conversation about what they've noticed/ improvements/ following questions etc. Typically I'll give them 5 minutes alone time with the material to digest, make notes. 2) brainstorm, present them with a problem statement - similar to your playlist but open ended rather than optional. The scenario should be in a tangential industry and focus on collaboration over technical, I'm usually looking to see how they'll work with me and what level of certainty they need to operate. I've let this take up to 30 minutes alone for certain roles where autonomy needs to be high. 3) ask them for feedback on what they'd do to improve the interview process. This serves two functions, the first is it's good to have feedback - the second is it gives me a sense of how freely they'll talk to me about issues. If they can't offer candid and respectful feedback prior to signing a contract it's unlikely that will improve without coaching after signing. None of these in isolation have ever dictated an interview outcome, but 2 or more in concert tends to paint a picture. Regarding 1 & 2, the first time putting the resources/ scenarios for a given role might take some effort but it pays off over time. The biggest flaw I've noticed specifically for the peer review is some interviewers are more brutal than others so it's higher effort to use at scale without disqualifying good talent accidentally.

Regarding the playlist: I would ask the user (popup) whether they want to add the duplicate or not when adding the song, with a checkbox to remember the choice on that playlist. Perhaps there could also be a little extra options panel when creating a new playlist where the choice can be made proactively and avoid the popup later.

very insightful, thank you for making this video

I don’t have much to do at work today. So I have spent no kidding the last 5 hours doing very little actual work and instead spending my time imagining how I’d respond to them in my head. I love video games :)

that was really great and insightful!

I love these videos and hope you keep doing them! Huge fan of fallout (new vegas being my favorite) I have a question i was hoping you could maybe do a video on (or reach out through email and answer) Is coding knowledge/college required for qa testers or any bottom floor positions with a game design team? Ive been searching for some time now, and am just trying to get my foot in the door. Obviously a big gamer, most of my life has been put into games (video and tabletop) but also enjoy watching docs/talks on art and level design, pathing dialogue choices, game mechanics, etc. but again, i dont have actual college level knowledge as far as coding or the math behind the code. I just desperately want to move out of retail and do what i love for a living.

There's two big interview questions I would use you don't mention here, and that's fizz buzz, good for making sure programmers can work with abstract tasks, and asking them to solve a specific problem in a specific way. This both tells you if they're a good problem, solver, and if they take a holistic approach or just charge for the first "solution" they see

Now I really want to do a mockup interviw for a gamedesigner just to see if I'd be accidentally hireable. :D

I guess my problem with simple interview problems like that are that I'm never going to ask someone to do those things. I think the probing style of questions you outlined for designers are perfect for programmers as well. What's important is how they approach solving a problem, and how they react to having their solution challenged. Something high level, applicable to the role they'll be filling. Bonus points if it's a problem they'd be working on when they start, or one that has already been solved. Maybe something that would take a week to implement fully, but I want to see if they can come up with good angles of attack. There's still room for general questions that dig into technical competency too, but I don't think they need to take the form of "solve this trivial thing under pressure in front of us in an unfamiliar environment with correct syntax" haha It should be pretty easy to ask a few questions and get a sense for whether or not they actually know the basics.

Thank you for giving such specific examples of questions for interviews. I have an interview in a few days and would love some example answers that you would consider good or bad as I have an answer to all of them, however I'm always unsure if Im missing out on something or im not concrete/detailed enough.

It's a similiar title to another video but let's see! Love you as always.

Loved this video

Heres my initial thinking on the playlist problem, going from 'least' assumptions to 'most/biggest' assumptions. 1. You want it on the list. this is always true, so to minimally satisfy this assumption we do nothing. 2. You want it on the list, and you want to see it at the end of the list (where you just 'put' it). We move the item to the end of the list. 3. You want it on the list, at the end, in addition to where it was previously. We duplicate it. My solution would start by implementing 1 and only move to 2 or 3 after these have been shows to have benefits that outweigh the cons, for most people. I.e. what are most peoples expectations. If we have to imlement 2 or 3, but also communicate/manage those expectations, then I would look at option fields, feedback, etc. Personally I prefer making minimal assumptions and avoiding complex behaviours - E.g. imagine allowing duplicates but not sequential duplicates. Do we have a separate option for sequential duplicates? LOL. Just keep it simple :D

Whiteboard interviews can be improved with providing access to IDE of sorts. Some problems require fiddling with the code in an especially unusual manner (like converting said reversed string to ascii, etc.), something that interviewee doesn't necessarily do everyday. I guess it just depends on goals of these tests: - do you want to weed out the people who are pretending to have any programming experience, - or do you want to verify that an interviewee is considering various limitations and pitfalls to obvious solutions. An interesting spin on these tests would be "Spot the mistakes in this code example". The design questions are super interesting, definitely give lots of room for thinking, and makes me wanna see a room of professional designers brain storm their ideas. Though maybe it's just the nature of briefly mentioning examples of questions in a video, but I always felt like I needed to hear more context to these questions. Because answers (and question's goals) vary greatly depending on genre and that sort of thing (...unless that's the whole point of them).

yesssss. 4k quality upgrade. More pixels on this dashing man!

As an Editor working in the gaming industry, I've developed what we call internally an Editorial Interview Test, which is a take-home test we ask candidates who made it through the first round to take and return prior to their second round. You're given a simplified version of our Style Guide and a number of copy examples to edit. Like, "Here's the style guide, here's some copy, please edit the copy." The trick is that every piece of copy contains at least three types of error (often more) that can be any of the following: grammatical errors, typos, weak word choices, style guide inconsistency, echoes, inconsistent Capitalization, vagueness, etc. Then during the second round, we talk through each example with the candidate and get their thoughts. Sure you can have someone else do the writing portion for you, but the writing is actually the least important part of the test. What we really look for is how the candidate explains their writing and what their thought process looks like. No one has thus far aced this test (including other writers across the company who helped testing the test), but it's not important to get everything right. It's more important to understand how a candidate thinks. Interviewing is an art, and I like how Tim uses measurable (and rankable, so you can compare candidates against each other) questions to tease out hard-to-measure qualities like critical thinking, analysis, design literacy, etc.

I go for solution E. Add the duplicate, highlight the song(s) in the list with a color, such as yellow to warn about it (also make it verbose somewhere with same color coding). If the playlist isn't shuffled sometimes you may just want to have the same song repeat at different times to set a mood. I hate pop ups. They waste everyone's time.

I came across an approach with home test, after which on a in person interview we were talking about my solution. Why I did that, what I think could be improved etc. You're going know to if I did it by my answers. I also think some simple question like you mentioned are required (like how would you do x). I don't get it why people hate them.

Would love to have a chat with you and me answering those questions. Would be quite a show, especially the questions that don't have a specific right/wrong answer.

*Puts one of Tim's video in the background while doing something else.* "Here's a list of questions for you!" *Video becomes the primary objective. Must answer every question!* I swear the design questions got me fired up. I'd have to pay attention to not go on a tangent as I explain a mechanic. XD

I like take home tests, and what ive done is after someone submits it. If its good we bring them in for an on-site, ask them questions and then ask to add a new small feature. Helps us know if they are familiar with the code and how they work on the spot.

This is great! Now to figure out how to get to the interview part. Haha.

Hi Tim, love your content and appreciate you sharing your knowledge and perspective! Apologies if this question has already been asked and answered, but I was wondering if you would be willing to talk about designing items and their systems in games, especially in terms of scaling and progression. Personally, I tend to dislike the idea of "higher level = bigger number" even if the weapons or armor are almost identical but still making them viable against stronger enemies can be difficult. I tend to enjoy when games allow players to improve their items over time (usually through attachments, enchantments, etc). I especially like when acquiring a new type of item has significant effects to gameplay that unlock new styles of play or new mechanics rather than just "this item deals 50 points of fire damage". Any insights you have on this would be greatly appreciated!

Instructor: "Give me the average of two ints..." High level languages, "Easy. There are no ints, doubles, floats, etc. There are only numbers." Low level laguages, "The game crashed because the sum of the two ints were greater than the maximum size of an intiger. I converted them to doubles but it still doesn't work because I can't do division with doubles. Do I need to use a the equivalent to "double" but for floats? A floutble? Maybe I should have just stuck with python."

Playing Fallout New Vegas again. What a great game. Love how they use the ambient music from f1 and f2. Just did there stands the grass. Amazing quest and vault!

I generally don't mind interview tests (except for at home ones for all the reasons Tim mentioned). I can't really think of a better way to see if a candidate knows their stuff. However, I do have a problem when companies have multiple rounds of technical interviews or interviews that are more than 3 hours. If you can't figure out if a candidate knows their stuff and is a good fit for the team within a 3 hour session, you're probably not asking the right questions.

Thank you mr Cain, this is so helpful. I wish there is a study guide for programmer readiness test similar to GMAT, LSAT, MCAT, or GRE. Maybe AAA gaming industry can create GPA - Game Programmer Assessment?

I think I can handle all the questions Tim mentioned. The worst one is, "Why should we hire you?" That's an Uzi-wielding Ian kinda question.

I would absolutely love to do an interview test like this in theory, (I actually wouldn't mind being considered either) to a game development job.

I'm surprised the creator of Fallout doesn't give his interviewees the G.O.A.T. exam.

I would vouch for submitting an assessment to the job. If the assessment goes well for the submitter, it's a great confidence boost and ice breaker to get over the "can I do this work" mentality leading into the actual interview. For the employer, it's a good starting point to gauge the thought process as well as verifying did the user really do the work. As a question Tim, have you ever ghosted an interviewee afterwards? What goes into that decision if so? That was easily the worst part of the job hunt.

Now this is how you do a call to action, heh. As someone that was on the both side on the interview process, I loathe the home assignments. When you the one doing the interview, it somehow feels even more of a waste of a time than when you're the one being given such a test. I don't think that interviews are going to go anywhere anytime soon - not at least before we become capable of violently ripping personality dump out of interviewee's mandatory neurolink or somesuch. I feel that with the most of the second half of the questions I'd start answering with "well, it depends..." since systems in any given game rarely exist in a vacuum. I'd still naturally narrow it down to a concrete answer of some kind since *almost* any solution is better than no solution - but always with a remark that actual conditions would influence such a design - perhaps, even in a dramatic fashion.

When my father would interview people, he would always ask a few questions he knew the answers to just to see if someone would lie. And he would even ask follow up questions to see just how big they spin the lie.

I once interviewed a guy for a CAD position and I asked them what CAD software they had previously used. They replied that all the software is pretty much the same so they can use any of it. I clarified that I would like to know a specific software they had experience with, and they would not (maybe could not) name any software. Had they named ANY of the many CAD programs they would have gotten the job, but because they didn't they got disqualified.

When you ask "what is a feature you don't like in your top 3 games" is it acceptable to answer with how a feature was tuned (too little vs. too much) or how it effected the flow from earlier games And when you ask "how would you make a good combat environment?" how would you receive a response based on a genre & game you're not familiar with I could go on about how TTK & suppression in Battlefield 4 was unfairly tuned between classes (it was a tad too strong in BF3 but fairly tuned), or how a 'good' FPS map needs to be designed around how fast you want the gameplay to flow (pump & rest or solid pace the whole time) while using terrain, structures+props, destruction and elevation to limit LoS, possible engagement distance and how teams can manoeuvre on objectives, but you the interviewer would have no way of knowing if the response or my manner is a 'good' because you don't play FPS or Battlefield

Exactly. Some people are good at interviewing, and not good at the work as they say they are.

I am an animator. However, this topic is of interest to artists as well as programmers and designers. An observation, people who exaggerate on their resumes get to the interviews. Being straight forward and honest about what I have done and can do does not get me to the interview. This is an observation from more than a few years working. I don't inflate my ability. Also, I have read programmers comments in various posts who work in IT positions. And I have friends who are programmers in games. They all say that looking up possible solutions is normal and in interviews they say that if they answer that they would not look up solutions there would be raised eye brows because a programmer just does not have all of the answers.

As a user, I don't like all those options for music playlist editor. 🙂 I would silently add small 2 in a circle to the line of a duplicate song, with simple hover-mouse info that this is a duplicate song. Then two ui buttons, one to "delete all duplicates" and a button "accept all duplicates (don't show a number)". These two buttons doesn't have to be visible on first sight, they could be kinda "level 2" of buttons. Of course it could be even more adjustable, but this would be my bare minimum - don't block the things user wants to do, try to provide options, but don't overcomplicate it.

Oh and regarding the favorite and least liked games I think its a hard question because it really depends on when you ask that question. I usually try to focus on games I enjoy regardless of flaws and dont pay much attention to games or mechanics I dislike. So its hard to name especially standing out features. Also the more I think of it, the more I would change my answer haha. So many enjoyable games and mechanics out there :) Generally grouped I would say realistic/believable features , appreciation for the users time ie no pointless grind and for most genre replayability are things I consider in a good game while the opposite usually is a bad game for me.

When I’m interviewing a candidate after the person presents his background, I usually start by asking to describe a single business process, for example, I press a button, what happens, then I stop him at certain technological nodes and go deeper, ask for alternative solutions, specific improvements etc.. Not every person makes it through the whole round trip.

These questions are great - I want to answer them just for fun!! 🎉😂

Great video as always. Usually an interviewer will ask what questions an interviewee has for them. Is there anything you wish to be asked as an interviewer? Or is there something that would be wise to ask about the company as an interviewee?

Honestly, were I hiring for the development of my game, I would circumvent the nonsense of job interviews and just build sincere relationships with people. ACTIVELY building TRUST with people who can be potential job candidates. Possibly dipping into modding communities. In modding communities you not only get to see what people are capable of, but depending on how they handle comments/criticism. You get some idea of their character as well. How interviewing is conducted, and especially how candidates are dealt with after the fact, tend to be riddled with bias, a level of inhumanity, and coldness which I would not want to keep perpetuating. I definitely feel that the system needs to change. The culture of distrust in the games industry I think causes more harm than good, in the long term.

Hi Tim, great video as always. One thing I'm curious about is, how do you know when a game you're working on is fun? This would be the ultimate objective, I imagine, as a game developer. I've worked in software for some time, so the ultimate objective usually is just, does this thing work, does it do what we say it will do? But a game is going to have that nebulous "fun" quality, what gets people to buy and play it, keep them coming back? What's the special sauce? I understand there's no right answer or you'd just do that over and over - more curious whether if for you, there's that moment when a game kind of comes together and you say, aha! I think we've got something!

Those even/odd questions remind me of my C classes 😵

My first instinct when seeing the title of the video. "You're in a desert, walking along when you look down and see a tortoise. It's crawling toward you. You reach down and flip it over on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over. But it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping. Why is that?" 😂 I'm so looking forward to the video!

I started writing out the the bool int true false statement and it took like 10 seconds longer than usual, that's a fun problem. The easiest way to do it would be to check for divisible by 2 for all evens, and if not divisible by 2 then they're odd, because int doesn't include decimal values.

I think I'd have trouble answering the flaws in my favourite games question, it's been a while since I played most of them since they're all heavily story driven and long. So my memory of them is fairly rose tinted and is mostly the things I like. Or it's Return of the Obra Dinn, which I could point out some flaws in.

This video made me realize that I would be focusing on impressing tim cain as I answer the questions. Never wanted to ace an imaginary interview this badly.

My first thought was just have the already saved song just moved to the spot the duplicate would be added because they forgot about it being there and it would be easier for them to find it or they didn't like it in the order it was added the first time.

Now when people are doing programing tests you also have to look out for if they are using chat-gpt for their answers (instead of just google). My default answer to most programing test questions is "first I would google it because that sounds like a solved problem and someone smarter than me has probably has a good answer". However in game development I have generally found that most tutorials and examples are not particularly made to integrate into a larger system, so google is less helpful. I also like the game design questions, but I do wonder if chat-gpt would pass your design interview/test.

Tim, do you have any stories about some of the most impressive job applicants you've ever interviewed? People who just blew you away?