Interview at China Game Companies, Part 3
The third company is one of the two companies I have been eyeing even before arriving at Shanghai. Back at my ex-company, we often decompile their java games to have a glimpse on the way they code. Although the classes were heavily obfuscated, we slowly tried to make sense out of the a, b, c's, and I got to say we were very, very impressed. Therefore, it would be a massive opportunity to work with these guys.
Gameloft is like Ubisoft's mobile division, but not, as they are two separate companies. Ubisoft holds a stake in Gameloft, as does the Guillemot brothers, the founder of both companies. One advantage that Gameloft enjoys over their competitors is their possesion of some widely acknowledged franchises, simply obtained from their sister Ubisoft, which includes Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia. It's like a baby born with a gold ring on the finger.
Arriving at the Gameloft office, I was prompted by the receptionist to choose between taking a Java test or a C/C++ test. She also inquired about my language preference. Confused over my claim that I speak Chinese better, but am more comfortable with writing in English, at last we settled with a Chinese Java test question.(for the English version, only a C/C++ test was available, I didn't want to take the risk)
Then, I was led to a conference room, and asked to fill in a 3 page personal details form before starting the test. The form was probably familiar to locals, but was certainly a shocker to me. It required me to fill in everything from my weight, height, marriage status, number of siblings, name of father, previous salary to...are you ready?... political status. I resisted the urge to fill in "nudist". Yes, I know nudists have nothing to do with political alignment, but hey, it's a game company afterall. They would appreciate a bit of humour, right? Anyway, I left the space blank.
Now for the test. It comprises twenty two questions, topics ranging from...
1. rectify coding errors
2. bit operations
3. write programs(one sorting question)
4. general java concept questions
5. general IT questions
6. IQ test(4 questions here!)
to
7. translation of a paragraph full of programming terminology from English to Chinese(!!!)
As usual, I had difficulty understanding some Chinese tech jargon, and gave up on some questions because of that. I did circle the tech jargons however, and stated that I could answer it if the English term was provided.
For the 2 translation questions, I gave up without even trying. You would too. Don't believe me? Now try telling me what is the Chinese term for "Polymorphism" and "Encapsulation".
The reason that Gameloft put the programming test right at the beginning is to filter out applicants that they deem unworthy. Fair and square. That would save time for both parties too. Like a bunch of nervous schoolboys(me and two other) with thumping hearts waiting for their UPSR results, we gasped as the receptionist came to deliver the result. I................................passed. An interview is scheduled the next day.
Early next morning, I reached the office and was directed to wait in the meeting room. They had a xbox and a PS2 in the room! Stuff that I really wish we had in my ex-company. A while later, the programming director came for the drilling. Conversations weren't as smooth as I hoped, so I bailed by offering to show him my past work.
Out of the 3 games that I showed him, that mouse game impressed him the most, a big thank you to Fabio for both pointing out that this game is important to show, and for coding most of it.
He then proceeded to assess my coding style, questioning the many flaws of my unoptimized code, and demanding an answer on why I did it that way. I answered "Ah, that was a few years ago, I used to suck" - he didn't know I swallowed the next sentence, "I still suck". He was unimpressed with the way we used graphics for text in parts where a nifty text engine would do a good job, but in the end, it was all well, as I qualified for the next session.
The next session was a "get to know you" session. I was bombarded with questions without much breathing space...
1. Are you interested in code and algorithm optimizations?
2. What are your steps to solve a programming problem?
3. How long do you play video games a day?
4. What books or websites do you go to for programming resources?
5. Games or software, why?
6. What techniques do you apply to make programs run faster?
7. What games do you play?
...Just to mention a few.
He then dug out the IQ question I took in the programming test(I got 2 correct out of 4), and asked me to tell him how did I solve it, step-by-step.
The interview came to an end after a good few hours. The verdict? There was one. No typical "you go home and wait for a call". I am not going to reveal it here, drop me a mail or PM if you are interested.
Part 4 of Interview at China Game Companies is in progress, but not so soon, as I'm still in the middle of it.
Gameloft is like Ubisoft's mobile division, but not, as they are two separate companies. Ubisoft holds a stake in Gameloft, as does the Guillemot brothers, the founder of both companies. One advantage that Gameloft enjoys over their competitors is their possesion of some widely acknowledged franchises, simply obtained from their sister Ubisoft, which includes Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia. It's like a baby born with a gold ring on the finger.
Arriving at the Gameloft office, I was prompted by the receptionist to choose between taking a Java test or a C/C++ test. She also inquired about my language preference. Confused over my claim that I speak Chinese better, but am more comfortable with writing in English, at last we settled with a Chinese Java test question.(for the English version, only a C/C++ test was available, I didn't want to take the risk)
Then, I was led to a conference room, and asked to fill in a 3 page personal details form before starting the test. The form was probably familiar to locals, but was certainly a shocker to me. It required me to fill in everything from my weight, height, marriage status, number of siblings, name of father, previous salary to...are you ready?... political status. I resisted the urge to fill in "nudist". Yes, I know nudists have nothing to do with political alignment, but hey, it's a game company afterall. They would appreciate a bit of humour, right? Anyway, I left the space blank.
Now for the test. It comprises twenty two questions, topics ranging from...
1. rectify coding errors
2. bit operations
3. write programs(one sorting question)
4. general java concept questions
5. general IT questions
6. IQ test(4 questions here!)
to
7. translation of a paragraph full of programming terminology from English to Chinese(!!!)
As usual, I had difficulty understanding some Chinese tech jargon, and gave up on some questions because of that. I did circle the tech jargons however, and stated that I could answer it if the English term was provided.
For the 2 translation questions, I gave up without even trying. You would too. Don't believe me? Now try telling me what is the Chinese term for "Polymorphism" and "Encapsulation".
The reason that Gameloft put the programming test right at the beginning is to filter out applicants that they deem unworthy. Fair and square. That would save time for both parties too. Like a bunch of nervous schoolboys(me and two other) with thumping hearts waiting for their UPSR results, we gasped as the receptionist came to deliver the result. I................................passed. An interview is scheduled the next day.
Early next morning, I reached the office and was directed to wait in the meeting room. They had a xbox and a PS2 in the room! Stuff that I really wish we had in my ex-company. A while later, the programming director came for the drilling. Conversations weren't as smooth as I hoped, so I bailed by offering to show him my past work.
Out of the 3 games that I showed him, that mouse game impressed him the most, a big thank you to Fabio for both pointing out that this game is important to show, and for coding most of it.
He then proceeded to assess my coding style, questioning the many flaws of my unoptimized code, and demanding an answer on why I did it that way. I answered "Ah, that was a few years ago, I used to suck" - he didn't know I swallowed the next sentence, "I still suck". He was unimpressed with the way we used graphics for text in parts where a nifty text engine would do a good job, but in the end, it was all well, as I qualified for the next session.
The next session was a "get to know you" session. I was bombarded with questions without much breathing space...
1. Are you interested in code and algorithm optimizations?
2. What are your steps to solve a programming problem?
3. How long do you play video games a day?
4. What books or websites do you go to for programming resources?
5. Games or software, why?
6. What techniques do you apply to make programs run faster?
7. What games do you play?
...Just to mention a few.
He then dug out the IQ question I took in the programming test(I got 2 correct out of 4), and asked me to tell him how did I solve it, step-by-step.
The interview came to an end after a good few hours. The verdict? There was one. No typical "you go home and wait for a call". I am not going to reveal it here, drop me a mail or PM if you are interested.
Part 4 of Interview at China Game Companies is in progress, but not so soon, as I'm still in the middle of it.
posted by killarkai at 9:49 AM
7 Comments:
In case you need more reference, this is the best place to look at Chinese terms (Although Microsoft isn't a very great picture in the Game industry)
http://www.microsoft.com/china/msdn/
这里也有...
http://www.ogcio.gov.hk/eng/itaware/eglomenu.htm
Encapsulation 封包
Polymorphism 多形性
Sorry Kai, but I can't help but laugh all the way when I realize the uniqueness of these terms in Chinese. Very much like:
terapung CariNilaiBaru(kar[] cAryKunci)
{
cuba
{
jika(talipanjang(kar) == 0)
kembalikan 0f;
kalautidak
kembalikan(kar[0] * 10);
}
tangkap
{
}
}
Microsoft is certainly big in the game industry, with the X-box relegating Nintendo Gamecube to third spot.
I am sure if anyone gives me a English to Malay translation job of a tech article, I wouldn't fare any better than I did in Chinese.
Polymorphism = ke-banyak-tukar-an?
Encapsulation = enkapsulasi? ke-kapsulan?
Actually it is much easier to translate from English to Malay. For any terms that you don't know, just take the xy and put in the si (like Oksigen) or replace that c with the k (as in Kaliber) or well, refer to some of our politicians, if you need the reference.
you are right, i'm guessing
obfuscation = obfuskasi
encapsulation = kapsulasi
abstraction = abstraksi
(refering to the direct translation of english-programming-terms to malay-programming-terms)ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah...damn! *lol*
Damn! Holy Shit dude! All that for an interview. And I always thought interviewing for a medical device company with doing panel interviews of 12 people were hard. Plus I had some companies give me those silly little psycological tests to make sure I was not insane. But what you said in your blog takes the cake. Wow! At least I am very impressed with the way companies filter and interview people to get the very best. As for on the consumer side we only want the very best. Good luck on Part 4!
thank you very much!
am currently waiting for the verdict.
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