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      Chess.com

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      Senior Backend (PHP) Product Engineer Interview

      31 Jan 2024
      Anonymous interview candidate
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Difficult interview

      Application

      I applied online. I interviewed at Chess.com in Jan 2024

      Interview

      They start with a half hour interview with HR. In the HR interview for a PHP position they asked me if I'm willing to switch to Java, and I responded positively. After that she sent me a really demanding (but without deadline) questionnaire. The questionnaire had everything from mathematical-philosophical questions to high level architect position designs. Despite having not applied for an architect position, I took two weeks of my time and delivered a very elaborate response of everything they asked. They responded with very generic rejection without any kind of explanations.

      Interview questions [5]

      Question 1

      Sir Roger Penrose, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics, believes that human understanding goes beyond mere rule following. In addition to our ability for logical thought (rule following), we also have the capacity for insight or intuition. Since a computer program merely follows a set of rules (like it does during a game of chess), then, according to Penrose, a computer (as it currently exists anyway) can never have the quality of understanding in the same way a human can. Do you agree or disagree? Explain.
      Answer question

      Question 2

      Should software engineers be concerned that ChatGPT, or some other form of AI, will replace them? Explain your view.
      1 Answer

      Question 3

      Eugene Wigner, a physicist and mathematician who made important contributions to quantum theory, wrote a paper on the ‘unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics’. He stated that ‘the miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve’. What do you think Wigner means? Do you agree with him? Why?
      1 Answer

      Question 4

      What is the most helpful advice you would give to a senior high school student who wants to pursue a career in software engineering?
      1 Answer

      Question 5

      Consider this scenario: The greatest sporting event in history is about to take place – The World ChessBoxing Championship! The highlight of the event will be the Celebrity Mega-Match on Mars between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg! Everyone knows who would win the chess game……but who would dominate in the ring? The world anxiously awaits to see these two tech monsters slug it out on another planet! This elimination tournament will begin with 300 matches happening simultaneously at various venues around the world. Each match will also be simultaneously live streamed to millions of viewers via the RTheyAliensInc app. Your task is to design a high-throughput, low latency, resilient, and scalable backend system that will deliver notifications. Specifications: - The events that need to be fired during the match are: - Major piece captured - Check and checkmate - Power punch landed - KO / TKO - Each user can set in their preferences how they want to receive notifications: a browser pop-up, an email, or a mobile push notification. - Each time a new notification event is fired, the web application will process and deliver notifications in batches according to the platform chosen by users (web, iOS, Android). - During high loads, the queue of messages that needs to be processed can start to swell and affect delivery timing, so special care must be taken to prevent lag and resource contention. We need a System Design capable of scaling to 300 notifications/second average and 1000 notifications/second peak.
      Answer question
      7