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Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

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Re: Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

#41

Post by mgkimsal »

herval wrote: post #34
chris11 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where have you seen that? The most I've been given is a general interview prep guide about how to prepare for an on-site.

2 “FAANG” companies and another one of the top big tech ones. One had a recruiter calling and literally listing all the questions they “could ask”, coding, architecture and all. They asked all of them.

I don't think it's the companies themselves as much as the recruiters. I've had recruiters pump me for info on the specifics of the question asked, and I obliged. I was younger and naive, and... didn't understand what they were doing. Not until later, when the reverse happened to me - I was given "potential" questions to prep for (which... I already knew answers to because it was my regular day job for) that I understood why I'd been asked about that stuff before.

Re: Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

#42

Post by paxys »

songzme wrote: post #12

It pains me to see another Coding Interview preparation tool. It's such a sad situation in the current industry. Students learn to game the system to get a high paying job. Students who care about what they are working on will painstakingly try to perfect their projects. They don't have time to game the system and therefore have a hard time getting a coveted job. Companies want to hire "the best" so they usually hire…

What's the alternative? Useless behavioral interviews? Sit-down exams and outdated certifications? Agents, middlemen and other leechers? Getting hired only through connections or favors? That's how every other industry in the world works, and I am thankful that the software industry has a somewhat-sane interview process based on actual skill.

Re: Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

#43

Post by AlexCoventry »

Antoninus wrote: post #25
songzme wrote: post #12

It pains me to see another Coding Interview preparation tool. It's such a sad situation in the current industry. Students learn to game the system to get a high paying job. Students who care about what they are working on will painstakingly try to perfect their projects. They don't have time to game the system and therefore have a hard time getting a coveted job. Companies want to hire "the best" so they usually hire…

This is something I've been going through for the past 2 months. The last few years I've been contracting with IGOs and VCs. Going through interview rounds with medium-large companies and some FAANG has had me purely doing algorithm problems instead of actually building or writing. But hey at least I can find the common elements between two graphs and return their values as a lowercase string. Something happened betw…

What's IGO?

Re: Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

#44

Post by Waterluvian »

amiga_500 wrote: post #13
songzme wrote: post #12

It pains me to see another Coding Interview preparation tool. It's such a sad situation in the current industry. Students learn to game the system to get a high paying job. Students who care about what they are working on will painstakingly try to perfect their projects. They don't have time to game the system and therefore have a hard time getting a coveted job. Companies want to hire "the best" so they usually hire…

Now zoom back one level. Most of the jobs (not all!) are doing something pointless like increasing advertising revenue.

Maybe that's the point. Make the wall so tall and hard to climb that candidates are convinced what's on the other side must be worthwhile.

I'd say 99% of the job postings FAANG recruiters email me about sound brain meltingly dull.

Re: Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

#45

Post by gandutraveler »

songzme wrote: post #12

It pains me to see another Coding Interview preparation tool. It's such a sad situation in the current industry. Students learn to game the system to get a high paying job. Students who care about what they are working on will painstakingly try to perfect their projects. They don't have time to game the system and therefore have a hard time getting a coveted job. Companies want to hire "the best" so they usually hire…

I work for a FAANG and this is so true. My colleagues have through so much schooling and gaming in their careers that you hardly see anyone come up with new ideas. Working at these large tech companies feels like going back to school.

Re: Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

#46

Post by paxys »

mgkimsal wrote: post #41
herval wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 “FAANG” companies and another one of the top big tech ones. One had a recruiter calling and literally listing all the questions they “could ask”, coding, architecture and all. They asked all of them.

I don't think it's the companies themselves as much as the recruiters. I've had recruiters pump me for info on the specifics of the question asked, and I obliged. I was younger and naive, and... didn't understand what they were doing. Not until later, when the reverse happened to me - I was given "potential" questions to prep for (which... I already knew answers to because it was my regular day job for) that I unders…

You are implying that FAANG recruiters are doing this without the knowledge or consent of the hiring team, which is ridiculous.

Re: Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

#47

Post by jointpdf »

Does anyone have insight on the extent to which interviews for ‘data scientist’ or ‘ML engineer’ roles involve Leetcode-esque or whiteboard coding exercises? What is the norm (if any) for assessing coding and subject matter competency for these sorts of roles?

Re: Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

#48

Post by Waterluvian »

cjohnson318 wrote: post #30

I like using the Blum Mental Hash as an interview question. As far as I can tell, it's not mentioned in any interview cram lists, and it's complex enough to see how candidates split up a problem. https://scilogs.spektrum.de/hlf/mental-cryptography-and-good...

That looks fun. Do you require them to know trivia or do you provide them with the definition and ask for an implementation?

Re: Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

#49

Post by noitsnot »

paxys wrote: post #42
songzme wrote: post #12

It pains me to see another Coding Interview preparation tool. It's such a sad situation in the current industry. Students learn to game the system to get a high paying job. Students who care about what they are working on will painstakingly try to perfect their projects. They don't have time to game the system and therefore have a hard time getting a coveted job. Companies want to hire "the best" so they usually hire…

What's the alternative? Useless behavioral interviews? Sit-down exams and outdated certifications? Agents, middlemen and other leechers? Getting hired only through connections or favors? That's how every other industry in the world works, and I am thankful that the software industry has a somewhat-sane interview process based on actual skill.

I had a company give me a Wonderlic test. If the coding interview algorithm game is the standard at this point, maybe we should be thankful.

Re: Coding Interview Problems with Detailed Solutions, Test Cases, Program Analysis

#50

Post by omar_a1 »

harikb wrote: post #24
songzme wrote: post #12

It pains me to see another Coding Interview preparation tool. It's such a sad situation in the current industry. Students learn to game the system to get a high paying job. Students who care about what they are working on will painstakingly try to perfect their projects. They don't have time to game the system and therefore have a hard time getting a coveted job. Companies want to hire "the best" so they usually hire…

Sometime, "good candidates" shop around for more offers. It is not always clear any greater effort would actually yield better candidates. Where I work, the entire interview process is just a filter to remove the absolute worst. Then it is a game of luck - whether we can meet the insane demand of the one we liked and whether we are just another "offer" for them to negotiate elsewhere. I think if companies are better…

To your last point, it's actually quite hard to break into this field because of these kinds of interviews. That, and every SWE job posting having a Sr. Prefix.
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