So I've been doing HackerRank problems, shoring up my ability to write programs in a Google Doc, and was finally able to pass a coding interview in a Google Hangout. The last question in that interview was to write a simple Run-Length Encoder.

But I didn't pass the second phase. In the second phase, the interviewer asked me to design a system that keeps track of ping pong scores. So I wrote out the names and fields for five tables in a SQL database, and then wrote two SQL statements that captured scores by team and by match. The interviewer seemed satisfied with that.

Then he asked me "How would you push that data to a page and update it, in real time? And I didn't know the answer to that, so I failed the interview.

I knew it had something to do with sockets, and that I'd have to put something on the server to trigger the real-time updating, but I'd never actually done it before.

I actually got some good feedback from them. In particular, "...while you were strong on the fundamentals of system design, you were weaker on web technologies and particularly front-end development."

Sockets?

Big subject.

I think my big thing is "How do you design any non-trivial system in 10 minutes?"

I really struggled with that. Sure, you can show some tables, but what about those folks who do "class first?"

Well, not this employer, but I see what you're saying.

I can hit both with EF.

So I'm not that worried about that. What I am worried about is that I'll spend the next six months becoming an expert on Javascript, CSS3 and HTML5, and still not be able to answer interview questions the right way.

But this is the first time I've actually had to know everything already about the jobs I'm applying for. When I went to work for NASA, I didn't even know C#, and .NET was just getting a head of steam.

The job before that, I knew Access, which is what they were developing in, but not VBA. I had to learn that from scratch.

It just seems like employers have really high demands nowadays.

Well, I'm just complaining now.

Go right ahead, the complaints of an expert are very interesting to us noobs

How can you not at least make the broad strokes in 10 minutes? I mean, they might not be ideal, but...

I guess it's a matter of hitting the right level of abstraction. Someone says "design a system in 10 minutes" and I start thinking about all of the low-level details that are going to be required to implement the simplest of such systems, and my head just explodes.

I think I have a similar problem: frequent waffling from UX and business has taught me that even a single popup cannot be reliably implemented from wireframes without bombarding them with a few dozen additional questions first; every time I've tried to "just make it work" I inevitably miss a feature they wanted or add stuff they didn't want

Yes, exactly. I actually had to create a new rule for myself when gathering requirements: "All requirements must be accompanied by an acceptance test that the customer can execute and sign-off." Otherwise, it's not a requirement; it's a wish.

on the plus side, it gives me a strong incentive to make sure my code is very easy to change later

Anyway, they didn't take issue with the design. They took issue with my lack of web frontend experience. All my experience is with ASP.NET MVC 2.

Which is mostly server-side.

how much experience do you have with angle brackets?

I can write basic pages without too much trouble. I know all of the li's ul's and all that.

I don't know the DOM all that well.

I understand Javascript, but have not done much development in it.

sometimes I feel like I should go learn some of the JS frameworks out there just because any other JS job on the planet would probably require it; all I know is our in-house frameworks (and enough Javascript/DOM/CSS details to fix bugs in them)

Yeah, when I hear design a system in 10 minutes, I think about the boxes to draw on a whiteboard enough that my dimwit coworkers can even grok the details I'll be talking about.