Interviews are meant to be an analysis of your knowledge as a programmer and your personality. It’s not just about the technical aspects of the job, although they have a substantial say, but also how well would you fit in that organization and how well can you work with others. You’re not just a piece of data, the human side is very important.
When it comes to technical questions there is a lot of information out there, lists and examples from big corporations, not just related to Node.js, but related to programming as a whole. But programming is rarely a solitary venture so behaviour matters quite a bit.
In that context, companies choose various interesting questions to challenge people, questions to show them more about who you are, than what you know and how well do you know it. Character and behaviour are a big part of any job so it’s natural that questions will come up related to them. But some questions can be downright weird. Take note that they’re meant to gauge a response from you, so the weirdness in most cases is intentional.
Here are 10 behavioral questions, harvested from the great crop of the Internet.
1 Are you more of a hunter or a gatherer?
2 What songs best describe your work ethic?
3 Have you ever stolen a pen from work?
4 What do you think about when you are alone in your car?
5 What kind of animal would you be and why?
6 What do you think about when you are alone in your car?
7 What dinosaur would you like to be?
8 How would you rate your memory?
9 What’s the first thing you would do if you got the job?
10 On a scale from one to 10, rate me as an interviewer.
Remember than whenever you’re interviewing for a position, the person(s) sitting across from you want to know as much as possible about you, more than your CV offers, more than your technical abilities. They will test your creativity, the way you think, the way you act in various situations, your critical thinking, the way you would respond under pressure.
For questions like the ones above there is no right answer, it’s not about getting that, it’s about your personal response to them and the way the interviewer perceives you through your answers.
What oddball questions have you encountered in your interviewing experiences?
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