Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?

#1

Post by zkirby » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 3:24 AM UTC

In the process of recruiting right now and I'm happy to see more and more companies are moving towards non-leetcode style interviews. As a child of the leetcode generation, this got me thinking - what kind of technical questions were asked before leetcode?

Were algorithmic "gotcha" questions still asked? Were the questions easier? Was the bar just higher?

I'm also guessing there was no 'coderpad' or 'hackerrank' - was everything just done on a whiteboard and pseudo-coded?

Re: Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?

#2

Post by newprint » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 3:29 AM UTC

My interviews in the decade before the rise of leetcode, were algorithmic questions very similar to leetcode. Surprise !!!! I think people are crying way too much about leetcode.

Re: Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?

#3

Post by BadHumans » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 3:39 AM UTC

The same as Leetcode but on whiteboards.

Re: Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?

#4

Post by ungreased0675 » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 3:51 AM UTC

There were riddles and brain teasers. Eventually people realized that people who were good at those weren’t necessarily good at the job. Eventually people will realize the same about leetcode.

Re: Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?

#5

Post by efortis » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 4:03 AM UTC

In 2013, I got asked this question at Yahoo for a Frontend job:

Explain as detailed as possible what happens when I click a button?

——

Around 2004, I recall college friends talking about an exam Google published. I think one question was: What is DEADBEEF?

——

In 2008, the “cracking the coding interview” book was published, and it is like leetcode but the problems are well formulated.

Re: Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?

#6

Post by ThrowawayR2 » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 4:22 AM UTC

Back when a fast microcomputer ran at 25 MHz and had 4 MB of RAM, back before Stack Exchange existed for people to copy and paste from, back when documentation came in a hardcopy book or CD, back when compilers were something you paid hundreds of dollars for, back before there were publicly available frameworks and libraries that were open source and free as in beer, the bar was much, much higher and knowing at least the basic algorithms was the norm. Whining about coding during a job interview would have gotten you laughed out of the room.

Re: Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?

#7

Post by pg5 » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 4:37 AM UTC

newprint wrote: post #2

My interviews in the decade before the rise of leetcode, were algorithmic questions very similar to leetcode. Surprise !!!! I think people are crying way too much about leetcode.

I haven't had to be an interviewee in 6+ years, but I can understand why people are upset. Competing with other applicants who spend dozens of hours per week memorizing leetcode solutions sounds not fun.

Re: Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?

#8

Post by timr » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 4:39 AM UTC

We had algorithm questions, but they weren't absurd. Whereas you'll routinely run into leetcode "hard" questions in interviews now -- which should be a dead giveaway that the candidate has memorized the answer -- back then you'd maybe get one question that peaked out at about medium. That's about the practical limit for a competent (but exceptional) mortal who hasn't simply memorized a book of trivia.

(And yes, we did these on whiteboards.)

It wasn't that long ago that Joel Spolsky proposed fizzbuzz as an interview screen...and he really meant that you should ask that question. The idea was that you demonstrate that you can write code using a simple test, then move on to more important factors. Can you imagine such a thing today?

Re: Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?

#9

Post by groby_b » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 4:41 AM UTC

Nope. No pseudo code. Definitely lots of whiteboarding. Lots of "recall arcane facts". (Like "Why did our counter stop counting up at 16M" - the answer being "because you used float for a counter, what's wrong with you")

And definitely lots of algorithmic questions.

Better questions than leetcode, though, because they were usually grounded in an actual problem the interviewer had.

Re: Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?

#10

Post by neontomo » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 4:42 AM UTC

in 2012 an interviewer asked me what would happen if i removed the tag. very unexpected question but i guess it was testing my /very basic/ fundamentals.