This is actually my first technical phone interview. It was not bad -- at least in the beginning. Although I did not sign any NDA, I don't think I should mention the details of the questions here. So this post is simply about some anecdote (lessons learned).
I thought everything went smooth until the begining of the second question. The interviewer asked the question and I had just started thinking about it. Yet suddenly it seemed he could not hear me and neither could I heard him. Then the call somehow got drop...
Is it a problem of his phone or mine? Is it because I was thinking so "hard" that I held the handset too close to my face and accidentally touch the hung up button? Will he call again? I should not have used a wireless handset for my landline! I became so anxious waiting for him to call again. I could hardly focus on the question. Actually, I did not know what to do except waiting.
Fortunately after a while (maybe in two minutes, but for me it's like an hour had past) he called my cell phone ... I did not know what happen from his side but he just mentioned "that phone doesn't work" and we continued.
Subsequent questions were not too chanllenging, but they are quite practical and the interviewer was looking for answers that need to take into account real situations and constraints. I was thinking more about theorectical bounds. In fact my initial solutions to one question was sub-optimal in terms of runtime, but he was nice enough to provide a few hints and helped me out.
Anyway, it's done. Now I have to go back and continue grading the case studies for advance demand modeling.