I am a bit puzzled by the whole technical interview process. I have been on a fe

Question

I am a bit puzzled by the whole technical interview process. I have been on a few interviews recently and I keep hearing certain phrases during the interviews. And I want to get more insight into the mind of the interviewer and the process itself.

Can anyone please shed some light into this? What do they really want? I am convinced that it is not the actual correct answer to the problem one is presented with because getting the right answer hasn't gotten me a job.

How do they "get a glimpse into my thought process"?

EDIT: I am adding this to the question because I think I might help. During the interview when you are writing code on the white board and they ask you to explain the process or approach are they expecting me to act like a player on who want to be a millionaire? Do I need to explain every little detail or reason for doing something?

Explanation / Answer

Interviewers don't consider the amount of knowledge you have. They see your ability to deduce things you already don't know. Mind you, an interviewer always has years of experience of interviewing people, so he knows how to get into your mind. He looks for your inquisitiveness, your logic (and not the final solution), your understanding and the complexity of solution. I too had a lot of interviews in college, and finally got selected in one I was least hopeful about (because they grilled me on C++ Ctors amd Dtors for 45 mins, and I wasn't sure if I had done it right).

He gets a glimpse into your mind because he knows how to do it. He tricks you, sometimes asks you silly questions & sees your reaction, he sees how you respond to problems that he knows you will definitely don't know, he sees your aptitude towards solving a problem and a positive outlook. And you said it right, right answer doesn't get you a job, a right approach does.

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