Written Test in UK Interview - J2EE Role - Help Needed

[Pavan Tanay]

I have an Interview scheduled next week in london. It seems there will be a written test before the actual Interview.

Is anyone aware of what this written test comprises of? Is it questions on technology or a psychometry or a quantitative analytical test?

friends, please help at the earliest.
[ February 23, 2006: Message edited by: Pavan Tanay ]

[Jaya Nagar]

Generally they ask about Turing machine,complexity theory,RSA algorithm and basic stuff like that.

[Pavan Tanay]

The interview is for a java/j2ee developer.

i would like to know, what is the purpose of these algorithms. I am not aware of these algorithms.

(if they are relevant to this role, could you please let me know where i can get more info about it)

[Svend Rost]

RSA - consult a basic book on cryptology (or search the web).

I can't see how Turing machines or complexity theory are relevant for
a position as a J2EE developer, but perhabs they just want to test your
general knowledge about computer science (in which case you should also expect
questions concerning basic algorithms such as quicksort).

If I were you I'd just concentrate on J2EE, the technologies in J2EE and
how to develop/design J2EE solutions...

Good luck.

/Svend Rost

p.s. your question isn't "urgent".. a question like "I just got bitten by
a snake - what should I do" is urgent.
[ February 23, 2006: Message edited by: Svend Rost ]

[Pavan Tanay]

Thanks Svend, I guess you are right that they might be testing candidates for some basic stuff.

Keeping guessing aside, is there any person who has faced such tests?

[Tejal Pande]

Hi Pavan,
I took a test for j2ee role just last week and was very disappointed by the content of test. The role under consideration was 'J2EE developer' who has worked extensively with Tomcat, Struts, JSP, Servlet and Oracle as backend. So I expected lot of questions on web technology. However, the test started with very basic java questions and then went into AWT, Swing, and applet. I passed the test with 80% score as I missed few questions in swing. I spoke with my agent about it and told him that if the client is looking for Swing or AWT skill, I am not the right person. But he said that this test is just an initial screening process. I really got irritated with it, cause after 4.5 years of strong J2EE experience, I didn't like the idea of being tested on Swing and AWT in the screening process. I got the impression that nobody at client side has ever seen contents of that damn test and its there just for the sake of saying that we have tough interviewing process.

However, after my interview experience in UK, I can say that ppl here don�t see if you know basic java or j2ee skills. They are not interested whether you know try-catch-finally or exception handling etc. What the client wants to understand is how you have used your skills in your project. Whets was the business problem and how did you arrive to the solution. They are more interested in practical use of a technology than a theoretical knowledge of it.

That�s my experience, other people can have different one.

Let me know your experience and about the technical test. And best of luck.

-Tejal
[ February 23, 2006: Message edited by: Tejal Pande ]

[Paul Sturrock]

However, the test started with very basic java questions and then went into AWT, Swing, and applet. I passed the test with 80% score as I missed few questions in swing. I spoke with my agent about it and told him that if the client is looking for Swing or AWT skill, I am not the right person.

You are not alone with that experience. That has happened to me a couple of times. In fact the only "work related" Swing/AWT I have written in the 8 years I've been a developer has been in interviews for roles where you wouldn't expect to use Swing :roll: . But what can you do - you've got to play the game to get the job, no matter how daft it might seem. I just reckon bigger companies buy in "Java" tests wholesale without really checking the content against the role. Written tests are never as revealing as having some senior technical person just plain speak to the candidate.

[Pavan Tanay]

From what Tejal and Paul said it is a blind buy of Java testing packages.

Instead of grilling unrelated topics(skills that are not mentioned in the job description), they might use that time to grill the candidate's experience in the Interview.

If I go thru the exam, at the end of the interview in the 'Do you have any questions?' part, i am going to ask the purpose of the test for an experienced person.

Tejal/Paul,

are you into a project? Would you mind sharing here, how a typical work day for a J2EE developer is in UK?

[Pavan Tanay]

Hi All, A small update from me. Today I attended the written test. The questions were from Java fundamentals, servlets, Applets/Swing, EJB. I don't know how much I scored but I guess I did OK. My agent said he will call me and let me know about it.

[Ali Hussain]

Originally posted by Pavan Tanay:
Hi All, A small update from me. Today I attended the written test. The questions were from Java fundamentals, servlets, Applets/Swing, EJB. I don't know how much I scored but I guess I did OK. My agent said he will call me and let me know about it.

What kind of question did they ask about EJBs. Was it a multiple choice test og did you have to write some code? How much experience do you have?

Good luck!

[ak pillai]

How about questions on design patterns and design concepts?

How about performance issues, memory problems, transactional issues, concurrency issues etc?

[Pavan Tanay]

the exam consisted of about 20 Multiple choice and 5-8 EJB code stuff. I did not find the coding tough as I have 4 years of solid hands-on.

Multiple choice questions were on design patterns, core java, Applets, ejb, struts, mvc,and swing(the topic i am not comfortable with). Transactional and memory issues were also asked but not concurrency scenarios.
[ March 03, 2006: Message edited by: Pavan Tanay ]