What is the interview like for programming jobs?

The above links may also say similar things I didn't go through them.
Its hard to decide for companies to judge different person based on their prior experience and background. You and me will have different background and have different way of working. You will have some skills which I don't have and vice versa and this applies to everyone who interview for a position. So how to find a person fit for the role?
Programming is a never ending learning process and 1 best thing companies look for is how well you think about a difficult problem. If your approach to a problem is systematic it signifies you tackle unknown problems which will come in your job. For judging this they ask some questions which use some basic concepts of programming language and need more thinking ability. How do you analyze the problem at hand? More important can you finish the approach you are planning and write code which will do what you are thinking? So not just you analytical skills but also implementation skills are tested. This shows you can think independently and are productive by solving a problem in a limited time.

These questions give a common benchmark for what they want to see in the candidate in general. Now if company is looking for a person who can help them in a problem/work which they are trying to do, in this case they will concentrate more on discussing about specific skill set.

For example: not sure how much you are aware of the programming so giving a very basic example:
Q. Write a program to draw a triangle on the screen? : this will test you maths as you will need some counting, for loop, edge cases. As lot of parameters needs to be tested generally questions are simple so that you can actually do something in the interview, otherwise with difficult questions the interview becomes a waste of time.

Roughly, most of the time, when you are interviewing as a programmer, they are trying to find out whether you are a skilled enough programmer to be hired. This is hard to measure, of course, and the most common method to approximate it is to give you a computer, or a whiteboard, and a programming task to solve. You solve it, showing how you would do it and writing out the code, and answering the interviewer's additional questions.

This is long, and somewhat targeted at people who already have interviewed a little, but I found it invaluable, and it helped me get my job at Google (which was among my first interviews). http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-google.html

The first thing to know about a programming or tech job interview is that you're likely to be interviewed by other programmers--the people you will work with. Although you'll likely make a quick pass through Human Resources to give over your background, the final decision will often be made by your future (or not so future) coworkers.

Your Resume
Be prepared for your resume to be a point of discussion. You can practice explaining the different portions of your resume in advance, but don't script things too much. An interview should flow somewhat loosely and you don't want to end up embarassing yourself by repeating information that you already told the interviewer in reply to another question

It depends on the type of company although there are other variables. Companies usually ask about your programming knowledge and then will give you some code to identify syntax, and logic errors. They may even ask for a more efficient solution (such as use less memory, faster execution). They may ask you about to write code from scratch for a given problem . Startups may throw in puzzles to see your approach to solving a problem. Microsoft for example would ask you to design a parking lot for a post office or how many piano tuners there are in US. Goal is not for you to know the answer to any of these questions but to actually show the steps to solve the problem.

Programming is a never ending learning process and 1 best thing companies look for is how well you think about a difficult problem. If your approach to a problem is systematic it signifies you tackle unknown problems which will come in your job. For judging this they ask some questions which use some basic concepts of programming language and need more thinking ability. How do you analyze the problem at hand? More important can you finish the approach you are planning and write code which will do what you are thinking? So not just you analytical skills but also implementation skills are tested. This shows you can think independently and are productive by solving a problem in a limited time.

Hi Alex,

These two links can help you a lot:

https://www.interviewcake.com/

http://www.cprogramming.com/jobs/job_interview.html

Read the links carefully and good luck on your interviews !!

What ever and where ever u go. make sure your Datastructure and algorithm concepts are clear. All programming needs good knowledge of Data structure.

Generally, a good strategy is to show your problem solving skills. Even if you don't get the answer, you can salvage the situation by showing that you understand how to approach a problem.
State your assumptions
Ask intelligent questions
Talk out loud, show your thought process
Draw pictures or diagrams