Just recently implemented connected components in a spark job that runs on a 100TB of data.
Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
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Re: Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
#12Would you rather be interviewed on algorithm questions or Ravens progressive matrices? They both test the same thing, but at least one you can study for, is somewhat relevant to the job (and is legal).
Can you not study Ravens progressive matrices?
Only if you remember all the permutations. But I think Ravens progressive matrices are only good for finding people who have good visual acuity, not people who think deep.
Re: Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
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Re: Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
#14When I was at Microsoft, we used data structures quite often in our service that powered Azure Frontdoor / Azure CDN.
Some of the stuff I personally worked on was tries and nested tries for routing/cache purge, LRU & variants for the caching algorithm on a cache node, and I implemented consistent hashing for the distributed cache.
There were some algorithms stuff for load balancing, but I didn't work on that.
I know there was a few other things, but I can't remember them right now.
Re: Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
#15I've used Dijkstra algorithm for calculating distance in a graph once. It was a highlight of that month. Of course I had to look it up(despite learning it and implementing it at university). Who remembers this stuff exactly after years of glueing libraries together? And even if you remember - won't you check it anyway just to be sure? It's OK to ask people general questions (what's algorithmic complexity, what kind o…
Completely agree. The only thing that's important is knowing what to google for. i.e. being able to map from a real world problem to one or several algorithm/structure classes.
Re: Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
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Re: Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
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Re: Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
#18Quote: "... but I have come across everyday use cases of data structures and algorithms when working at Skype/Microsoft, Skyscanner and Uber"
Considering Skype is at best laughable compared to other IM applications, I'd not boast about working on it. I used Skype over 10 years and after it got bought by Microsoft it gradually started to be worse and worse, to the point I had to look at other IM in order to communicate with my clients.
I have a question, why is that Whatsapp and FB messenger can and will deliver notifications when you receive a message every single time, while for Skype this seems to be an unachievable feature?
Re: Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
#19A good wood worker tends to know the tools of the trades and more importantly know when to not use a tool and when to invent a new one.. That said not every cabinet is a work of art some are just there to be functional for long enough to justify their creation. I feel system interviews that dive deep about decisions and insights are far more useful than hitting a leetcode jackpot. Though it puts a high bar on the int…
Most wood workers likely won’t know or care how to build their tools from scratch
Re: Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
#20I once thought it would be difficult for big tech company recruiting processes to tell the difference between:
a) A really good problem solver
b) Someone who has ran through all the example interview problems on leetcode or something similar
Then I thought that this might be similar to the Turing test. Once you’re that good at faking it that you can convince someone else - maybe the difference doesn’t matter at that point.