Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want those offers, most of those companies are more than happy to fly you out for an onsite interview. Get 3 San Francisco weekends out of your onsites, and see if you can get this kind of pay. Practice basic algorithms. The guys at these firms aren't nearly as smart as they think they are so you can comfortably stop after part III of the "Introduction to Algorithms" (the R. Rivest one) book (which is about 1/…
I’d fail all of these interviews. I have never worked like an “engineer”. My brain takes information from many channels, I let it congeal, then I create solutions. This means that I’m terrible at algorithms and patterns, but highly creative with real-world solutions. I believe companies need both kinds of technical people (drone and creative), but I’ve only been in a few places that actually understand that.
Re: My offer numbers from big companies
#291The only solutions you need to come up with are things that closely resemble the answers to questions in the book I mentioned.