How to Pass a Programming Interview • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#21

Post by markeroon » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 6:46 PM UTC

ammon wrote: post #13

vkjv wrote: post #10

> "That’s exactly the point. These are concepts that are far more common in interviews than they are in production web programming." The list includes things like Big-O analysis. While, formal analysis is certainly not a day to day occurrence of most programming, knowing what the runtime complexity of the code you are writing is almost always important. While, I generally don't care for most algorithmic problems, I a…

So, I see where you are coming from (I actually love academic CS). But the VAST majority of the programming work out there does not require any Big-O analysis. It just does not. It's used as a tool in interviews to (essentially) look for rigor. The problem is that this harms people who are rigorous as hell in low-level details of JS and V8 (something I'd posit is actually more useful to many more companies), but neve…

If someone else is well versed in complexity then it's fine to hire a js person with no knowledge of it.

If you're expecting the candidate to produce performant code, they may need said knowledge.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#22

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 6:47 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#23

Post by h0w412d » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 6:48 PM UTC

vkjv wrote: post #10

> "That’s exactly the point. These are concepts that are far more common in interviews than they are in production web programming." The list includes things like Big-O analysis. While, formal analysis is certainly not a day to day occurrence of most programming, knowing what the runtime complexity of the code you are writing is almost always important. While, I generally don't care for most algorithmic problems, I a…

I'd have to disagree. I think the interview process desperately needs an injection of pragmatism. If the actual job never requires Big-O analysis, then asking it during the interview is a waste of time. I've never had to do Big-O analysis in the real world, but I have had to fix N+1's. Ask about that.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#24

Post by debacle » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 6:49 PM UTC

bshlgrs wrote: post #3

Another tip which I give: Interviewers vary widely in how much they care about whether your syntax is accurate, whether you handle invalid inputs, and whether you write unit tests. It's really useful to ask the interviewer whether they want you to worry about those things. If you handle invalid inputs for an interviewer who doesn't care about that, they're going to be a little annoyed by you going more slowly than ne…

If I'm at a whiteboard and the interviewer cares that my syntax is accurate I'm probably wasting my time.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#25

Post by jkarneges » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 6:50 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #20

bshlgrs wrote: post #3

Another tip which I give: Interviewers vary widely in how much they care about whether your syntax is accurate, whether you handle invalid inputs, and whether you write unit tests. It's really useful to ask the interviewer whether they want you to worry about those things. If you handle invalid inputs for an interviewer who doesn't care about that, they're going to be a little annoyed by you going more slowly than ne…

Is there any reason an interviewer should care about syntax, etc? When I interview, I ask for psuedocode - I don't really care what language the interviewee uses, I do care that they can get their point across.

This happened to a friend. He confirmed that pseudocode would be acceptable, but then as he was writing it out the interviewer got on him about not terminating lines with semicolons (I suppose the pseudocode looked C-ish). So yeah I'd say make this clear.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#26

Post by aidenn0 » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 6:50 PM UTC

ammon wrote: post #13

vkjv wrote: post #10

> "That’s exactly the point. These are concepts that are far more common in interviews than they are in production web programming." The list includes things like Big-O analysis. While, formal analysis is certainly not a day to day occurrence of most programming, knowing what the runtime complexity of the code you are writing is almost always important. While, I generally don't care for most algorithmic problems, I a…

So, I see where you are coming from (I actually love academic CS). But the VAST majority of the programming work out there does not require any Big-O analysis. It just does not. It's used as a tool in interviews to (essentially) look for rigor. The problem is that this harms people who are rigorous as hell in low-level details of JS and V8 (something I'd posit is actually more useful to many more companies), but neve…

I have more than once in my professional career run into programmers who tested on small inputs and assumed the timing would scale at least close to linearly.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#27

Post by kornakiewicz » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 6:51 PM UTC

noonespecial wrote: post #8

Interviewing should now be part of most CS educations, if not its own three class/semester course. Its that weird, and that important.

Then we shall call them a sales (or whatever) training, not the CS.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#28

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 6:52 PM UTC

jameshart wrote: post #7

Programming interviews aren't pass/fail, they're match/no match. Imagine how it would read if this said "how to pass a first date".

[deleted]

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#29

Post by bshlgrs » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 6:53 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #20

bshlgrs wrote: post #3

Another tip which I give: Interviewers vary widely in how much they care about whether your syntax is accurate, whether you handle invalid inputs, and whether you write unit tests. It's really useful to ask the interviewer whether they want you to worry about those things. If you handle invalid inputs for an interviewer who doesn't care about that, they're going to be a little annoyed by you going more slowly than ne…

Is there any reason an interviewer should care about syntax, etc? When I interview, I ask for psuedocode - I don't really care what language the interviewee uses, I do care that they can get their point across.

It sort of makes sense. If someone knows a language well, they shouldn't have much trouble writing it syntactically correctly on a whiteboard. Especially in languages which have simpler syntax, like Ruby vs eg Scala.

Re: How to Pass a Programming Interview

#30

Post by ionforce » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 6:53 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #20

bshlgrs wrote: post #3

Another tip which I give: Interviewers vary widely in how much they care about whether your syntax is accurate, whether you handle invalid inputs, and whether you write unit tests. It's really useful to ask the interviewer whether they want you to worry about those things. If you handle invalid inputs for an interviewer who doesn't care about that, they're going to be a little annoyed by you going more slowly than ne…

Is there any reason an interviewer should care about syntax, etc? When I interview, I ask for psuedocode - I don't really care what language the interviewee uses, I do care that they can get their point across.

I've had people interview claiming to know X and then not code in X correctly. So... that's a red flag.

We allow interviewees to pick their strongest language. But if you end up picking something that doesn't exist, well, you aren't earning yourself any points.