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Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice

danluu.com

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Re: Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice

#71

Post by gmiller123456 »

dehrmann wrote: post #15

> The most widely read programming blogger around (Joel Spolsky) was telling people they need to adopt software practice X because Microsoft was doing it and they couldn't compete adopting the same practices. These days, it's amazing how much "We do X because Google does X" you see. But Google is the new circa 2003 M$, so it makes sense.

>"We do X because Google does X"

My standard response was "The most distinguishing property of Microsoft (Google) is they have a monopoly, copy that part first".

Re: Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice

#72

Post by chillee »

fyp wrote: post #23

> a friend of mine once got a Google Code Jam World Finals question in a phone interview with Google (...) I doubt there were more than a few hundred people in the world who would've gotten the right answer to the question in a phone screen and almost all of them probably would've realized that it was an absurd phone screen question Link to the question: https://code.google.com/codejam/contest/2437491/dashboard#s=...…

Another piece of contextual information that's important is that interviewers can provide hints during an interview.

For example, I was asked this question once: Given N points and 3 squares of side length L, what's the minimum L that allows you to cover all N points with the 3 squares?

I think this question is fairly unreasonable as an interview question, if you weren't given hints. In the context of an interview, however, I think it could be reasonable.

Re: Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice

#73

Post by insighter »

Does anyone have articles or advice/experience to share on improving a company's interviewing process / culture? I work at a medium/large enterprise software company in SFBA that's well compensated (not quite FAANG level) and sometimes a final round interview will have 5 algorithm style whiteboarding questions which feels excessive and lazy.

I'm interested in:

a) standardization. Right now interviewers pick their individual questions and sometimes the question types. You can't apply a wildly inconsistent measure across anything and expect to have confidence in your findings.

b) interview question diversity. If people have varying strengths and our day to day work goes beyond just solving algorithm style questions (because it does for a huge majority of dev jobs) then a more diverse body of questions seems to be a better yardstick to measure others by. Examples of questions types that seem interesting to add include refactoring existing code, pair programming, small coding project and even weird things I haven't heard of before like the ability to give constructive feedback on design proposals, etc..

Re: Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice

#74

Post by ddsea »

agumonkey wrote: post #33
aphextron wrote: post #4

>"I’ve done maybe 40-ish "real" software interviews and passed maybe one or two of them" I'd say that about mirrors my experience as well. Is this really that common? Here I was thinking that I'm just an idiot.

It sends me into morbid down spirals. I'm almost angry and don't see the point of this. Why not ask for a Nobel Prize in theoretical physics. Two actually.

The answer to this typically is: even if you've never done these kinds of problems before and would not need to solve them during your employment, still go prepare, study and that would show your commitment to work hard and ability to learn. To which my (mental) response is: why don't you ask me to dance ballet for you? That would show a real commitment!

Re: Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice

#75

Post by ddsea »

TrackerFF wrote: post #51
christiansakai wrote: post #27

Its hard to believe that Dan Luu can’t pass algorithm interviews.

It has a lot to do with psyche. If you have anxiety, it is entirely possible to even fail the most basic questions. And unfortunately, you can't just say "Sorry, I'm having a panic attack. Could we do this tomorrow?". I think the best course is anxiety management. But unfortunately, some people get dependent on drugs just to calm their nerves before something important. I know people that can't hold meetings or prese…

And then tomorrow you'd feel double the pressure - because you cannot do it again.

Re: Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice

#76

Post by sdnlafkjh34rw »

yibg wrote: post #36

This topic comes up pretty often, and I think most people agree algorithm interview questions aren’t effective and screen for the wrong things. The question though is, what is a better way to interview? I don’t think I’ve seen any consensus, let alone anything backed by data yet.

You could ask coding questions that are not algorithms? Realistic problems that are commonly found in web work.

Re: Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice

#77

Post by majke »

chillee wrote: post #72
fyp wrote: post #23

> a friend of mine once got a Google Code Jam World Finals question in a phone interview with Google (...) I doubt there were more than a few hundred people in the world who would've gotten the right answer to the question in a phone screen and almost all of them probably would've realized that it was an absurd phone screen question Link to the question: https://code.google.com/codejam/contest/2437491/dashboard#s=...…

Another piece of contextual information that's important is that interviewers can provide hints during an interview. For example, I was asked this question once: Given N points and 3 squares of side length L, what's the minimum L that allows you to cover all N points with the 3 squares? I think this question is fairly unreasonable as an interview question, if you weren't given hints. In the context of an interview, h…

A similar situation happened to me, and the problem was not hints. I just wasn't happy with that particular problem because I knew how much time it took me the last day, when preparing, to solve it!

I was really not into doing it again, it was so traumatic.

The correct curse of action is for the interviewer to anticipate this and prepare a backup question.

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