Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to solve a hard programming interview question

dailycodingproblem.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 84 posts

Re: How to solve a hard programming interview question

#31

Post by Brotkrumen »

shokasg wrote: post #18
Rainymood wrote: post #16

Scrolling down we are greeted with >Only accepting 98 more subscribers. >Subscribe for $9.99 / month Which then slowly ticks down. I was very sceptical about this and refreshed and I found that it just resetted to 100 again and started ticking down again. In other words, it's just a timer. I thought the article was of good value and that you provide a good service, but then this is contrasted by this scummy, predator…

What about using some ad blockers? I only see text :)

I'm not sure what your point is. Parent says that the article signals it isnt credible by employing a dishonest sales tactic. Your answer is to ignore the potentially valuable signal?

Re: How to solve a hard programming interview question

#32

Post by Karliss »

theossuary wrote: post #2

Am I missing something, or couldn't you just merge the lists like you would in merge sort? Begin with a pointer at the start of each list, find the minimum of the elements being pointed at and increment that pointer, until all pointers are at the end of their respective lists. You could possibly even do it in place. That was my first thought anyway.

It can be done on O(nk log k) if you always merge two shortest list. If all the lists have length k initially it can be easily done with couple of loops as all the lists will have the same length - n in the beginning, 2n after fist iteration, 4n after second.

Re: How to solve a hard programming interview question

#33

Post by suyash »

reyg wrote: post #21

A systematic approach like this or others (Gayle Laakmann Macdowell’s BUD) seem to reduce the risk of underperforming, but I haven’t had success with it. Instead, problem identification has been most helpful to me. The approaches for solving Dynamic Programming problems are different than those that require a fundamental data structure (like a heap). Recognizing the heart of the problem is harder, probably what the i…

Care to elaborate how do you go about problem identification?

Re: How to solve a hard programming interview question

#35

Post by ubernostrum »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #17

> I often find it’s not enough to just be able to solve the question; you really need to vocalize your thought process. I interview candidates regularly, and I can't overstate how important this is. If I ask you a hard interview question, and you sit silently for 10 minutes and then write out a perfect solution on the board without any discussion of how you got there, all I've learned is that you knew the answer. I h…

On the other hand, if you're cargo-culting interview practices from third-hand accounts of what BigCo tech companies do, you've demonstrated that you're probably not someone I want to work for.

So it evens out!

Re: How to solve a hard programming interview question

#38

Post by blt »

I tend to find problems like this one, where the brute force solution is straightforward and then you can improve it by using a special data structure, easy. The ones I struggle with are the puzzle-like ones, where solving the problem depends on having some single flash of insight.

Re: How to solve a hard programming interview question

#39

Post by mplewis »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #25
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #17

> I often find it’s not enough to just be able to solve the question; you really need to vocalize your thought process. I interview candidates regularly, and I can't overstate how important this is. If I ask you a hard interview question, and you sit silently for 10 minutes and then write out a perfect solution on the board without any discussion of how you got there, all I've learned is that you knew the answer. I h…

Problem solving is pattern matching/recognition. Many of us solve problems wordlessly in our head with no explainable "thought process". After solving it, i can explain quite clearly but not during. One does NOT need to be able to simultaneously solve & explain how you solve an abstract algorithm problem to be a good engineer either. Dont kid yourself its only an "important skill" because you like to test for it.

Part of hiring is finding out if someone can work well with a team. Lots of teams need everyone to be able to communicate well during collaborative problem solving sessions.

I've worked with the strong, silent type of coworker who has a solution in their head. But because they don't vocalize what they're thinking, I can't participate or help. That's not what I'm looking for in a good engineer and a good coworker.

Re: How to solve a hard programming interview question

#40

Post by dvirsky »

reyg wrote: post #21

A systematic approach like this or others (Gayle Laakmann Macdowell’s BUD) seem to reduce the risk of underperforming, but I haven’t had success with it. Instead, problem identification has been most helpful to me. The approaches for solving Dynamic Programming problems are different than those that require a fundamental data structure (like a heap). Recognizing the heart of the problem is harder, probably what the i…

This. I tanked an interview once because the problem was phrased in a way that it wasn't apparent to me that it's basically a graph. Once I realised that it was also clear why a simple BFS would solve that problem. Sadly this happened just as the interview was over. I think I sort of blacked out because I couldn't identify the underlying problem, and my mind "unlocked" the moment that the stress of the interview ended. Which reminds me - another important thing is not to get stressed if the solution is not apparent immediately.
Post reply on HN