Week 3 Peer Interviews

Overview

For weeks 3 and 4, the class will be split into two pools of students, Group A and Group B. Each student in Group A will be paired with a student in Group B.

During this two-week period, you and your partner should conduct two 30 minute interviews, in which you are each once the interviewer and once the interviewee.

Each week, an "Interview Question of the Week" guide will be distributed via Google Drive to either Group A or Group B. The guide will contain all of the information needed to conduct the interview, including general instructions, a coding question, a sample solution, and proposed follow-up questions.

After the interview is completed, both partners will be asked to submit a reflection about their experience.

We will assign new partners in weeks 7-8.

Interview instructions

For all interviews, you should make sure you have read the interview instructions. After each interview, both the interviewer and interviewee should submit a reflection. The format for the reflection is described in the aforementioned document.

Here is the schedule of peer interviews and question guides for the term. Note: you must be logged-in to your @kibo.school account and in the appropriate group to access the question guide for a given week.

Grading

The peer interviews will contribute 10% to your overall grade. This grade is based on

1. completion of all four interviews,
2. your reflections submitted for each interview.

You can find and submit the interview reflection in Gradescope.

FAQs

1. In what setting will the interview take place?

The interview can take place as an online meeting. Meeting in person is not necessary, but is allowed if both partners agree.

2. What happens if I'm unable to complete an interview in a given week?

There are opportunities for makeup interviews throughout the semester.

3. What happens if my partner is unable to participate in an interview for a given week?

You can either do a makeup interview later in the semester, or find another peer who is willing to conduct the interview with you during the week (only in cases where your partner is the interviewer).

4. I don't feel confident in my coding skills, and I'm afraid I won't do well during the peer interview.

In this class (and often in the real world), you are not strictly judged on your ability to produce a bug-free, highly efficient implementation of an algorithm. You are mostly judged on your thinking process and ability to work your way through the problem.

For the peer interviews, you will not be graded on the correctness of your solution, and will earn full credit as long as you complete the interview and submit a thoughtful reflection.

Also: we are here to learn! We are doing this process to give you experience interviewing, so that when you go to do a real interview, you already have some interview experience. We should all be mindful of this and help and encourage each other.

5. My partner was unprepared for the interview and it hurt my experience. What can I do?

This is something you should discuss in your submitted reflection. Everyone should come prepared to every interview. Even though these are peer interviews, they are being conducted to help each other gain experience in this important part of becoming a software developer, and being unprepared will diminish this experience for your partner.

6. As the interviewee, can I see the solution before I attempt the peer interview?

Please do not seek out the interview question or solution before attempting the interview. If you do, you will not get the full benefit of the exercise, which will only hurt your interviewing skills in the long run.

7. How do I volunteer to be interviewed during weeks 1 and 2?

The instructor will provide information about finding volunteers at the start of the term.

8. Does the interview have to last the full 30 minutes?

No, but it should last at least 20 minutes, and ideally 25-30 minutes.

9. I have another question about the peer interviews. Who can I ask?

You can ask in the class Discord, or email the instructor directly.