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A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

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Re: A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

#191

Post by mailshanx »

kudokatz wrote: post #111
biztos wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, a lot of people who have none of those skills also earn well over $300K at those companies. Just like grinding leetcode can get you in the door, the skills you need for advancement are not necessarily the same ones you need for making good software. I hope the parent makes the best of it and becomes good at the craft, it will make the job a lot more enjoyable even if it may not be the fastest way up the l…

> the skills you need for advancement are not necessarily the same ones Exactly this. I suggest learning how to fabricate (or at least exaggerate) "impact" to get promoted. It's the fastest way to make money once you're in the door. Show how much of a team player you are to deliver cross-team, impactful results specifically by stepping on bodies to get there--it'll make you rich!

Could you elaborate more on that or perhaps give specific illustrative examples of how one may do so? This will benefit a lot of us at FAANG. Thanks!

Re: A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

#192

Post by Xcelerate »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #120
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The popular sentiment on computer science knowledge has done a complete 180 in the past several years. Not that long ago, it was popular to complain that junior SWEs didn't really understand the algorithms, the data structures, and what was going on behind the scenes. The complaint was that they were just copy and pasting from internet searches until things sort of worked on their machine, but they couldn't recognize…

> Personally, I've never met anyone who was good at Leetcode yet produced bad code in production. I'm sure there's someone out there who knows a guy who knows a guy who can somehow ace Leetcode but can't write an efficient website backend, but it's not the norm. Weird. Ability to leetcode doesn't mean you know what is happening in e.g. an RDBMS. We've had people good at leetcode write a single query to delete hundred…

> We've had people good at leetcode write a single query to delete hundreds of millions of records in a table with billions of records that was being constantly updated by the live website.

This says more about the ability of the other employees at the company than it does about the new junior employee.

Re: A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

#193

Post by [deleted] »

mettamage wrote: post #114
vechagup wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a current employee add your resume to an ATS as a referral is the most efficient route. Around SF at least it's not particularly hard to find someone willing to do that even if they hardly know you. This sort of networking is likely harder elsewhere, but perhaps not by much. Simply uploading your resume to a large tech company's website will rarely get you anywhere, is what I've heard from recruiters.

Ah, so that's what I've been doing wrong for 18 months. Thanks! I'll be putting this to good use :)

[deleted]

Re: A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

#194

Post by AJRF »

digianarchist wrote: post #21

It's becoming obvious to me that my time is better spent learning to solve these riddles rather than actually becoming a better developer. I have a job search coming up at the end of the year and whilst I've managed to largely avoid companies that ask this type of question, I believe it's seriously constraining my career. I can't speak for everyone but the whiteboard interview has prevented me from leaving jobs earli…

I think these questions are bad for interviews because they cause so much anxiety for candidates.

Minimising that will give you a better interview, as if the candidate is more relaxed that’s going to be a more accurate picture of a day to day working patterns.

I like pairing for interviews on a simple problem in a real app in the tech stack your hiring for. But really spend effort easing the candidate in rather than barking orders as soon as the come through the door (or join the video call these days I guess).

I absolutely love doing Leetcode/HR myself - and think they’ve made me a better programmer. I’ve frequently found times when coding where a “trick” has improved code in my side projects (I’m really interested in making bits of productivity software so trees, graphs and ways of speeding up searching over large portions of text are a real help).

Just grinding them out probably isn’t helpful to everyone but go in with an open mind and you’ll be surprised what you learn.

Re: A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

#195

Post by barry-cotter »

shahbaby wrote: post #149
tmpmov wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks ghj. I was aware of top coder/leet code, though hadn't heard of code forces/at coder. For me the adventure game give a bit more concept linkage. Take Monkey Island, I can remember how to reply to many of the sword fighting insults, or what was needed to get pieces of eight via the cannon at the circus. There's something to be said for linking problems via a memorable story, giving examples and meaning from mul…

Usually when you try to combine education with gaming, the result is something that's not very educational and not very fun.

It can be done, see Dragonbox Elements or Dragonbox Algebra.

Re: A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

#196

Post by kyawzazaw »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #77
biztos wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually I love leetcode (the website) and do it for fun once in a while, and if I decide to go for a big grind later on then I don't think I'll particularly mind that part even if it doesn't get me my ticket to the Google Bus. The risk of cynicism is that I've been doing this for 25 years or so and there are some things I'm quite good at that can add a lot of value to a company, but it appears that the highest-payin…

> but it appears that the highest-paying outfits will judge me on things that are at best very tangentially related to how I can make/save them money. IMO, this is a popular misconception but it's not really reflective of reality. Leetcode is ultra-popular with new college grades and people with a few years of experience who want to break into Big-N. As such, the vast majority of Leetcode discussions online revolve a…

25 year seems so extreme though, no? At that point, won't it be more around the Staff+ role, even VP/Director of Engineering roles?

Re: A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

#197

Post by snypox »

lowiqengineer wrote: post #89
anon349852034 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 2 friends who work at the Amazon office in Denver. Both work on boring projects utilizing internal tools Amazon built over the years and completely hate their lives. But the salary and stock options make them stick around. You can look at this as "Omg, this is total shit. I'd never want to work here." or "I don't mind suffering 4 years to get fully vested, get the fuck out of dodge and enjoy retirement a littl…

I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that if it was Google they wouldn’t have that opinion, eh?

What do you mean?

Re: A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

#198

Post by pandaman »

jkcorrea wrote: post #112
zerr wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err, but why do you have to prove it for every next job?... In reality, it's a legal way for: 1. Ageism - not many seniors are desperate enough or have a free time for Competitive Programming preps. 2. Making switching jobs harder - for every next job one has to prepare again, because nobody is using Competitive Programming stuff during real work, so you forget. Keep in mind that CP != CS. And CP is not everyone's cu…

#2 doesn't make sense, though: If I'm company B, trying to poach from company A, it would be in my best interest to make the leap to applying/interviewing less difficult, not more for employee's of company A. Unless you're implying a set of companies are all in league with each other to reduce churn/competition for talent

FAANG don't really want to poach each other that much, as a sibling comment says, they had been already caught in the illegal non-poaching collusion. But even without any such collusion active they undestand that people would jump back and forth between these comapnies, ratcheting TC up every jump.

What they need is that somebody who passed the interview believed it was a lucky break and would not tempt fate trying a similar interview at another company. If they considered the interview just a filter, they probably would not be so lenient with letting people to apply many times and even encouraging this.

Re: A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

#199

Post by read_if_gay_ »

username90 wrote: post #76
read_if_gay_ wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's not much of a stretch to imagine that you could apply that same aptitude, ambition, and ability to learn quickly toward picking up the basics of git, dev ops, and so on. But you already have your reward, right? I’m not sure how much ambition is left after you actually get the job.

Promotions can double your salary or more from that level so people are plenty motivated.

So can job hopping. In fact, IIRC staying at the same company earns you less money than finding a new job every two years or so.

Re: A guide to learning algorithms through LeetCode

#200

Post by rightbyte »

jdietrich wrote: post #45
rightbyte wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be a "tragedy of the commons"-like effect for companies that don't adhere. I would guess that is just an unintended effect and that there is no master plan behind making recruiting expensive, slow and inaccurate.

Or it's part of an organised cartel between the major SV employers to reduce salary competition and employee turnover. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...

I am not ruling out the possibility that there is a "recruiting should be hell" cartel but I believe there is no general bad bureaucracy HR bloat cartel and that it is an unintended effect, hazing, esprit de corps, HR self interest etc. The conspiracies are probably more simple like "no poaching" or wage cartels?
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