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Show HN: Every problem and solution in Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview

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Re: Show HN: Every problem and solution in Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview

#61

Post by devnull3 »

bespokedevelopr wrote: post #56
devnull3 wrote: post #45

I wonder which other professions or trade ask people to perform infront of them in a simulated env as a filter criteria. Actors for sure with auditions and maybe maybe chefs, male pornstars.

Welders, millwrights, machinists, carpenters, lots of trades have qualifying interviews. I’ve taken written exams in interviews for machining and welding as well as hands on show me parts. Not that I agree with absurd interview process of software development but they often see themselves more akin to attorneys than tradesmen. The difference being attorneys have to pass a bar exam and even trades have journeyman card…

I may have a outdated notion about the trades you mentioned, but I have seen an "apprentice" model a lot. I have seen it with a masonry where the experienced guy was bringing in his nephew and teaching him on the job. A lot of these trades are family owned and have seen taking in people based on someone vouching for the new guy.

Maybe this varies country to country. I have seen this in India and UK atleast.

In UK atleast there are trades like roofing, landscaping, exterior building cleaning, masonry, tree surgeon etc which I have seen them are mostly family based.

Re: Show HN: Every problem and solution in Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview

#62

Post by jwmoz »

Spivak wrote: post #46
jwmoz wrote: post #40

'Principal' developer at my last place spent 100 consecutive days grinding leetcode. Shortly after had an interview where they made him do a leetcode test live and he failed it. The whole thing is broken.

It's a whole separate skill to be able to code with an audience, let alone an audience who is judging you. I could forgive a non-technical interviewer not knowing this but surely someone who is a dev themselves understands the very real performance anxiety. It's bonkers why we do this to people— the best I've seen is the in person talks about their experience, architecture, problems they've encountered and how they s…

It's almost impossible for me to do any serious work or problem solving in an interview situation due to anxiety and stress-my mind simple does not work the same way as it does when relaxed and in flow.

Re: Show HN: Every problem and solution in Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview

#63

Post by serial_dev »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #50
jwmoz wrote: post #40

'Principal' developer at my last place spent 100 consecutive days grinding leetcode. Shortly after had an interview where they made him do a leetcode test live and he failed it. The whole thing is broken.

Principal Engineer level shouldn't even be tested on leetcode. There are far more important things to know about that candidate.

Some basic level of leetcoding should be fine to verify that the candidate can at least code and is not only a bullshit artist who jumps from one position to the next, failing upwards.

I had some interviews, not at the principal level, we had a couple of candidates who were very good during the informal interviews, they could hold a conversation about technology, but they couldn’t code the simplest of problems. I know folks don’t like it, but this could happen in my humble opinion at all levels.

Re: Show HN: Every problem and solution in Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview

#65

Post by ryandrake »

brettgriffin wrote: post #38
AndrewStephens wrote: post #24

Cracking the Code Interview is a great book and excellent for practice and brushing up. But I have found leet-code questions terrible for actually interviewing candidates. A lot of them boil down to whether the candidate knows the specific trick or can regurgitate the memorized solution. (Maybe I am just bitter because I have more than once bombed a leet-code interview myself) I interview a lot of people and my go-to…

Leet Code style questions are a shorthand assessment for two things: 1. Raw mental horsepower 2. The ability to just repeatedly do focused learning, aka just grinding And sure, it probably does favor #2 these days - but that is a critically important skill. You can trade one for the other, but everybody has some amount of both, and these questions figure out, roughly, your computed aggregate score of these. They have…

Why is 2, the ability to grind/memorize random problems, important for any company? I can't think of any company I've worked at, where that would be useful during my day to day work.

Re: Show HN: Every problem and solution in Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview

#66

Post by bornfreddy »

stmw wrote: post #34
bko wrote: post #22

Thank you for this. Some people are critical of coding tests but I do this there is a point: namely to weed out people who can't code. Am I the only one that interviewed people with lengthy resumes full of programming experience and when I asked them to do a simple programming exercise they fell flat on their face? I've seen experience in C, gave them take home two hour exam and they couldn't even get anything to com…

You are not the only one. I've interviewed probably 1000's of engineers and it is striking how often one runs into candidates that can't code... or ones that operate at a level far below what you would expect.

Meh. There is a world of difference between 1337code problems and anything one encounters in the real life. Judging someone by that 1h slot on a domain they haven't worked on for decades doesn't paint the right picture. It does tell a lot about the priorities of the company though, so there's that.

Re: Show HN: Every problem and solution in Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview

#67

Post by Uehreka »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #50
jwmoz wrote: post #40

'Principal' developer at my last place spent 100 consecutive days grinding leetcode. Shortly after had an interview where they made him do a leetcode test live and he failed it. The whole thing is broken.

Principal Engineer level shouldn't even be tested on leetcode. There are far more important things to know about that candidate.

I don’t get why people act like terms like “Principal Engineer” have an agreed-upon specific meaning that can be used in cross-company discussions. At most places I’ve worked the titles were a duct taped hierarchy born of “we needed to give so-and-so another raise but had run out of non-manager titles, so here’s Senior Software Engineer II”

Re: Show HN: Every problem and solution in Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview

#68

Post by williamdclt »

throwanem wrote: post #54
devnull3 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Males are under pressure to "sustain" it for 10-15 min atleast (with many people watching). For females, no such thing.

[flagged]

They didn't say anything about acting? They said men have to "sustain" - ie hold an erection without ejaculating.

Re: Show HN: Every problem and solution in Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview

#69

Post by williamdclt »

devnull3 wrote: post #45

I wonder which other professions or trade ask people to perform infront of them in a simulated env as a filter criteria. Actors for sure with auditions and maybe maybe chefs, male pornstars.

All sorts of managers and analysts have "project stages" where they have to analyze data and present a case study.

Re: Show HN: Every problem and solution in Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview

#70

Post by jghn »

devnull3 wrote: post #45

I wonder which other professions or trade ask people to perform infront of them in a simulated env as a filter criteria. Actors for sure with auditions and maybe maybe chefs, male pornstars.

> maybe maybe chefs

staging [1] is very much a thing for kitchen staff

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staging_(cooking)

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