The document provides guidance on conducting effective technical interviews. It recommends: 1) Preparing specific role-related questions in advance and properly researching candidates before interviews to avoid wasting time. 2) Clarifying expectations and not assuming knowledge during interviews. Asking candidates to explain answers without jargon. 3) Probing long lists of skills and focusing on problem solving and communication skills over specific technical knowledge. Hiring for cultural fit but avoiding creating a cult.

1. Conducting technical Interviews
- Kapil Raj Nakhwa

2. Technical Interviews
are messy
But it's Okay

3. Recruitment At Gurzu

4. No one size fits all approach
Hot water softens a carrot, But hardens the egg

5. Hiring is t0o important to be just
left to recruiters.

6. The "Who" is more important
than "What".

7. Simplify Your Interview
"Talented people are busy."

8. Before the interview
• Study the candidate , And not just resume.
Proper due-diligence would help you
understand more about what he/she is
saying during the interview. Reject now if
you think it is not a match
• Prepare specific questions related to
project/role requirement before hand so that
you do not waste 1.5 hrs of your time and
people included in the interview to find out
he was a psychopath.

9. During the interview
• Introduce yourself, Helps to work out
everyone's nerve.
• Clarify and tell what you are looking for,
Reading people's mind should not be
employable skill .
• Looking for a behaviours you didn't ask for
isn't a fair ask.
• Give extra points if they ask clarifications to
your questions.

10. During the interview
• Probe when you see long list of skills,
Separate out truth from filler BS.
• Make it tough yet fun, Good engineers want
to know if they are talking to smart people.
• No Trick Questions.
• Judge by how they approach problem and
not result. Look for real life problem solving
skills.
• Look for unasked details in answer.
• Do scan for database and algorithm
knowledge scale.

11. During the interview
• Hire For Cultural Fit too. But beware of
creating a Cult.

12. S.T.A.R
• S : Situation : describe the most important
situation you faced in your professional
career.
• T : Task : What was the task assigned to
you in this situation ?
• A : Action : What was the Action you did.
• R : Results : What were the results of you
action ?

13. NEVERS
• Keep asking question just relevant to your
knowledge.
• Recursively asking questions relevant to
programming syntax.
• Rejecting candidate based in pre-cooked
answer.
• Rejecting because concept known to you is
not known to the candidate.
• Rejecting because he doesn't write code as
per your teams optimized style.

14. Do's
• Understand what candidate knows and
doesn't know.
• If they know something and if it lies within
your hiring role/ work scope, check if his
knowledge fits in.
• If a crucial knowledge is missing, Find out
why. Opportunities are not qual everywhere.
• Scan how good communicator he/she is.
• Find out all other skills he has that he is
good in.

15. SHORT CODING
EXAMPLE.
IF YOU HAVE DOUBTS ON
CAN THEY DO STUFF.
(5-10 minute live coding)
Implement in any language you know or pseudo code
I want to find out whether of a city , Using open weather API.
=================================================
STEP 1(REACTION): Asses their logical and computation
thinking.
STEP 2(COMMUNICATION): Have them explain to you without
any technical jargon.
STEP 3(CHECK MODULARITY KNOWLEDGE): Ask what could
have been better. ( scan for amount of change if you change the
city or unit )

16. After interview
• Send back unbiased views on what you liked about the candidate, What
you didn't liked about the candidate.
• Send back views on if current candidate has learning attitude.
• Send back views if current candidate is good enough for the job at hand.
• Send back views if candidate has bad communication skills.

17. No single thing should make you want to hire a candidate. Over-indexing
on any particular point or aspect will do nothing except inject bias,
randomness and noise into a process already filled with all three.

18. "Hiring Only by personality traits is dangerous too"

19. Let's discuss your ideas.