I had an interview with the Virtual PC team.

Okay, I went through the interview. I was interviewed by a panel of three people, on the Virtual PC team. It started outgoing pretty good. Then, they started asking questions… I was asked to name what a number of DOS Command-line script commands do. There were a few that I didn’t recognize. One of them PushD I remembered afterwards what it did. Let's see if I can rebuild the list this time with discriptions.

MD = Creates a directory. PATH = Displays or sets a search path for executable files. DIR = Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory. NET LOCALGROUP = Retrive/modify users on the computer. PUSHD = Saves the current directory then changes it. Restored using POPD START = Starts a separate window to run a specified program or command. IPCONFIG = Windows IP Configuration. PROMPT = Changes the Windows command prompt. DEL = Deletes one or more files.

Next I was asked to test these two applications one was a very simple calculator, the other a Triangle determinater. I did okay I brought up a few good tests but on reflection there is something I should have brought up; I was with the Virtual PC Team. I should have thought to test their applications on different platforms. Duh! Why didn't I think of that on the spot!

After that I was given a Microsoft famous Brain teaser question, even though they are supposed to be discouraged now days. I was given a problem where a balance scale was drawn up on the white board and nine balls. One of the balls is lighter than the others which are all alike. All of the balls are the same size. I was asked to find the lighter ball. Boy did I flounder on that one. Here "http://sakharov.net/puzzle/weight.html?SRC=sakharov&STAT=9Z2&TTL=2" See if you can work it out before continuing on to the answer.

One thought I had while heading home was to bounce them and the one that bounced higher or lower could be the one. But that is not the answer. So what is the answer?

Separate the balls into 3 groups of 3. Place 3 balls on the left side of the scale and 3 balls on the right. If they balance out, you know that the heavier ball is not one of those 6. If one side is heavier, you know that the heavier ball is one of those 3. Then once you know which set of 3 has the heavier ball, you choose any 2 of them and weigh one on each side. If they balance out you know the final ball is heavier. If they don't balance, well, obviously the heavier ball is the one you are looking for. From: Casey, Yahoo! Answers

I was sort of close at one point but, I had for some reason assumed that I had to weigh every time to get the solution. I have realy never been very good with this kind of Brain teaser puzzle. Oh well. Next time, maybe.

I really don't think I have the job. Which could actually be a good thing since when I read the email all the way through I found out that it would only be a three month contract, which could put me with a hundred day break allot sooner than would be good.

Update: 21 Feb 2007 5:22 PM, I recived word on the interview. "Hey Alma, The team decided to go with a no hire decision. I will provide more feedback tomorrow. Zeshan"