It all stemmed from one particular interview I had years ago. The interviewer presented me with a very simple problem, I solved it. He then stepped up the difficulty a bit. This kept happening and as it got harder he started acting more like a co-worker where we bounced ideas off of each other.
Granted he knew the solution, but the mere fact that he presented himself not as an interviewer judging my performance but as a co-worker helping to solve a shared problem made that one of my favorite interviews.
I’ve had two very similar experiences as well. They were back-to-back interviews and in both the interviewers started simple, then stepped up the difficulty. During the whole process the interviewers worked with me, not against me. Of course the questions became hard and they were clearly looking for a good answer, but the whole process did not feel antagonistic at all.
It was for Amazon. I will say I had 4 or 5 other interviews at Amazon that day and most of them weren't nearly as good, one was actually atrociously bad.
They may have changed their interview process at this point though, I only interviewed for them that one time and it was quite a few years ago.
It all stemmed from one particular interview I had years ago. The interviewer presented me with a very simple problem, I solved it. He then stepped up the difficulty a bit. This kept happening and as it got harder he started acting more like a co-worker where we bounced ideas off of each other.
Granted he knew the solution, but the mere fact that he presented himself not as an interviewer judging my performance but as a co-worker helping to solve a shared problem made that one of my favorite interviews.