I have a short preliminary interview with Microsoft in less than 2 hours. I've been told that they might ask questions in Java and/or C++. Where can I find a quick overview of both languages? I don't need to full tutorial, just something that goes over the language-specific features and a refresher of the semantics. I also only have 1.5 hours to study so... Any ideas?
Thx!
An hour and a half is a bit fast to learn a language. You can try Wikipedia, but you may want to avoid discussion of either language if you don't know them. Instead focus on the languages you do know. Learning a new language is not difficult, but you shouldn't try to rush it and then sound like you know more than you do. They'll figure that one out pretty quickly, and it will be worse if you don't admit your lack of knowledge. We had someone who tried that with my company, and he lasted less than a week.
My advice would be to tell them you do not know C++ and Java. Attempting to blag it after just 1 1/2 hours rushed study will likely make a far worse impression as they'll start exploring how much you know.
Teach yourself programming in ... 80 minutes?
I would bet on the quick reference cards:
C ref card, A Java ref card, A C++ ref card, Google for reference cards.
Good luck!
Don't even try it. Any "fake" C++ programmer can be recognized within first 10 seconds of the interview.
This may be a little late coming, but the Wikipedia link for a comparison of the languages and some of the features can be found here