Actually, in an interview, the truth is you should know all the answers to all the questions!! At least at Microsoft, we are looking for any reason to not hire you. While the questions presented may seem tricky, they are actually basic knowledge needed for the job...
Wesner (why didn't you sign with a link to your blog):
That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that, If you've already in a situation where you are having a bad interview, make the best of it.
I agree totally, I had a few bad interviews and I thought I knew my stuff, very humbling!. However I think that very technical interviews are not really fair, nobody knows the answer to every .net question, it is just too broad a subject. The approach to a problem is more important, knowing the syntax is handy but that is why there are reference guide, google etc. If I am willing to give up a job to join the company I interview than the only one who takes any risk is me, if I can't do my job they can let me go at any time, (at least here in the USA). The interview can point out where you need to improve and that is indeed the good part , I know I need more XML, just it is something that does not interest me, probably because I don't know enough about it.
I think interviews should not only test your knowledge but more importantly you they should test your problem solving ability. However, I agree that interviews are sometimes eye-openers or shakers that they wake you up and say "Hey you, you need to know this!". Months ago, I also had my share of a bad interview at least from what I thought. The interview asked "How do you implement a singleton pattern in C# .NET?". Wow, haven't really heard the one except I've read some kind of "Singleton Call" in Remoting. So I answered, "Yeah, ... it is used in Remoting.. blah blah..." You can guess the interviewer's reaction. But what I like about this interviewer is that he gives you a chance to recover and test your problem solving ability. So he said "Well, I am talking about Singleton design pattern that lets you use instantiate only 1 class....blah..blah.. Can you tell me how to do it?". This time I tried my best to answer because I know it needs some kind of static member, etc. So I came out of feeling less humiliated in that interview. BTW, I now have the GOF book!
You're wasting the interviewer's time. They should have stopped the interview after 10 minutes and sent you back to the agency.
Rich: so? as long as the interviewer is willing to go on, the more I get out of the interview :)
I had a really bad interview recently. In the beginning, the interviewer told me that he will asked about SQL, .NET Framework, ASP.NET, and WebServices.
I was told that the interview will take about 45 min. or more.
I answered about 40% from SQL questions, 90% from .NET Framework.
After the answering .NET Framework, I gained more confidence, but he didn't continue to ask the ASP.NET and WebServices. He just finished the interview.
A couple days after that he told the technical recruiter that I don't really have a solid experience, and so he recommended me to apply for a lower level position. I am still very upset with the situation. How could he cut the interview time and be able to made a bad conclusion?
The lessons that I learned is to ask the interview why he doesn't ask the other question as he planned before. I don't want this happen again in the future.