Tech interview

[Anonymous]

Having passed a HR interview for a major games company, I’ve been asked to do a tech interview with them over the phone next week. It’s for a 3D programmer or shader programmer type position (the recruiter wasn’t specific about the job). What should I be expecting?

I’d be interested in hearing about any sort of experiences from anyone who’s done a tech interview, and even more so from those that give them! What sort of questions have you been asked, or (for the interviewers) what sort of things do you ask? It’s hard to study for this sort of thing (but hey, I should know it all already, right?!) but it’s my first real tech interview so I’d like to at least have an idea of what to expect.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on getting past stage 1.

Well the kind of stuff i guess you should watch out for is standard question which will get you up and running. Simple but its to easy you into the interview.

1: Simple 3d maths. cross\dot\geometry\trig.
2: How would you go about debugging a shader which is buggy, procedure for finding the bug etc?.
3: Possibly asked what effects you’ve created in the past, DOF, HDR, motion blur etc.
4: Some C\C++ questions (standard).
5: Possible asked about your appreciation for development on limited platforms (i.e. working in memory restrict environments such as consoles etc).
6: Possible be given a particular problem to solve or case: explain how implement a simple rain effect\lightening effect?
7: might even have to write and debug a simple programming problem.

These are just possibilities, but these are the kind of things we’d be asking. If your being recruited into a graduate role then it probably wont get to focused in one area. But if its totally aimed at 3d programming and nothing else be prepared to answer questions about GFX techniques; culling method etc. best of luck

[Anonymous]

As its for a graphics / shader coder, I’d expect:
– Understanding of the graphics pipeline.
– Understanding of next-gen mapping techniques (normal/bump/parallax/etc).
– complex maths questions
– questions on past work done, what ws good, what was rubbish, what you learned

[Anonymous]

– Understanding of next-gen mapping techniques (normal/bump/parallax/etc).
[/quote:1acca84a70]

doh! that was an important one i missed earlier :lol: Normal mapping is all the rage now, if you games doesnt have everything with a normal map you’ll get slated :)

[Anonymous]

Good stuff, thanks for the tips guys. I should be ok on all of the points you mentioned – although it’s always the “tell me about a time when…” questions that flummox me.

Now I’ve got tech interviews with two different companies! I suppose at least I’ll be more prepared for the second one…

[Author]

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