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I got asked LeetCode questions for a dev-ops systems engineering job today

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Re: I got asked LeetCode questions for a dev-ops systems engineering job today

#41

Post by zrobotics »

scottLobster wrote: post #12

In a few months I'm going to be sniffing around for embedded software engineering positions (c on microcontrollers, DSP, maybe even some PCB or FPGA design). I'm still buying a copy of cracking the coding interview and doing leetcode in the weeks leading up to applying for precisely this reason. It's dumb but I'm not going to give up an otherwise promising opportunity in protest, although in the interview I might pol…

Although embedded is possibly one of the few software positions where these questions might be somewhat relevant- aside from embedded who is writing a sort by hand anymore; although even in embedded it isn't that common of a problem. I just find the questions especially egregious for an average software dev working on something like a web app, since in that case hand-coding something like a sorting algorithm or BST is almost always the wrong thing to do.

Re: I got asked LeetCode questions for a dev-ops systems engineering job today

#42

Post by matz1 »

arnvald wrote: post #39
matz1 wrote: post #31

Complaining about leetcode is unproductive. Leetcode is not even that hard, tons of material and key to the answer is on the internet. Another benefit is, its streamline job searching. You practice once and you can use the same skill to interview for many companies.

It doesn't matter whether it's hard or not, it's at best a mediocre tool to determine programming skills. Also, it leads to a spiral of becoming worse: 1. being able to solve LeetCode tasks doesn't mean you're a good developer 2. not being able to solve these tasks doesn't mean you're a bad developer. So we have a tool that has a certain (IMHO high) rate of false positives and false negatives. 3. people start realisi…

These are more of the problem for the employer.

Re: I got asked LeetCode questions for a dev-ops systems engineering job today

#44

Post by zrobotics »

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #15
vonmoltke wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I search for software engineering interviews if I'm applying to be an IT systems engineer?

Because these days "IT Systems Manager" are expected to know basics of coding.

Wouldn't "the basics of coding" be something like knowing how to read/write a short python/bash script to automate a task? Algorithms questions ala leetcode are far higher level than the basics.

Re: I got asked LeetCode questions for a dev-ops systems engineering job today

#45

Post by reallydontask »

icedchai wrote: post #36

Good DevOps engineers are software engineers that can also do infrastructure work. They should be able to code. Unfortunately, many are "cloud sysadmins", for lack of a better term.

I think that devops engineer is a misnomer as devops is a cultural movement, but such is the industry.

There are software engineers, there are deployment automation engineers and there are people that do both to a greater or lesser degree.

From a recruitment point of view, it seems devops engineer = deployment automation engineers

Thus the expectation from a coding POV for a devops engineer is low, i.e. only scripts.

As ever, there are nuances here that can't really be captured in a post but you get the idea

Re: I got asked LeetCode questions for a dev-ops systems engineering job today

#46

Post by woodrowbarlow »

scottLobster wrote: post #12

In a few months I'm going to be sniffing around for embedded software engineering positions (c on microcontrollers, DSP, maybe even some PCB or FPGA design). I'm still buying a copy of cracking the coding interview and doing leetcode in the weeks leading up to applying for precisely this reason. It's dumb but I'm not going to give up an otherwise promising opportunity in protest, although in the interview I might pol…

actually, i would think leetcode interview problems would be more relevant for embdedded development jobs. in embedded, you're less likely to have access to libraries that implement advanced data structures, sorting and searching, string manipulations, etc. so you'll need to do more of it by hand.

Re: I got asked LeetCode questions for a dev-ops systems engineering job today

#47

Post by rightbyte »

matz1 wrote: post #42
arnvald wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter whether it's hard or not, it's at best a mediocre tool to determine programming skills. Also, it leads to a spiral of becoming worse: 1. being able to solve LeetCode tasks doesn't mean you're a good developer 2. not being able to solve these tasks doesn't mean you're a bad developer. So we have a tool that has a certain (IMHO high) rate of false positives and false negatives. 3. people start realisi…

These are more of the problem for the employer.

And the interview victims wasting there time. And the employees that don't get new coworkers becouse riddles.

Re: I got asked LeetCode questions for a dev-ops systems engineering job today

#48

Post by shepardrtc »

opportune wrote: post #4

I guess if you don't like the company's interviewing process you don't have to work there. Unemployment rate for software engineers is pretty low these days so just go with somewhere else. I'll keep working at places that ask programming questions because basically all the highest-paying places do that these days. And as snobby as it sounds, I want to keep working with other people who can pass algorithms teasers Als…

> they generally do require programming knowledge

Yes

> probably an algorithm here and there

No

Even Amazon doesn't ask about algorithms for DevOps. When I interviewed with them for a DevOps position, they asked me to write a Python script to parse logs files. They also asked about various linux commands that you would use to work with those same logs. Pretty relevant. But the interviewer never once asked about algorithms or anything like that.

My current company gave me a take-home test to build out a solution that deploys a code package. Best interview question/task I've ever had. It was hard, but I got to show off my real skills.

Companies that ask leet coding questions for DevOps probably have no idea what they're looking for and probably don't know what they're doing.

Re: I got asked LeetCode questions for a dev-ops systems engineering job today

#49

Post by reallydontask »

shepardrtc wrote: post #48
opportune wrote: post #4

I guess if you don't like the company's interviewing process you don't have to work there. Unemployment rate for software engineers is pretty low these days so just go with somewhere else. I'll keep working at places that ask programming questions because basically all the highest-paying places do that these days. And as snobby as it sounds, I want to keep working with other people who can pass algorithms teasers Als…

> they generally do require programming knowledge Yes > probably an algorithm here and there No Even Amazon doesn't ask about algorithms for DevOps. When I interviewed with them for a DevOps position, they asked me to write a Python script to parse logs files. They also asked about various linux commands that you would use to work with those same logs. Pretty relevant. But the interviewer never once asked about algor…

>Companies that ask leet coding questions for DevOps probably have no idea what they're looking for and probably don't know what they're doing.

I think it's a more a case of cargo culting rather than not necessarily knowing what they are doing, although that might also be the case in some instances.

Re: I got asked LeetCode questions for a dev-ops systems engineering job today

#50

Post by matz1 »

rightbyte wrote: post #47
matz1 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are more of the problem for the employer.

And the interview victims wasting there time. And the employees that don't get new coworkers becouse riddles.

Wasting time ? You should do some research before going job searching, by now you should know about this leetcode thing.
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