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Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

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Re: Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

#231

Post by UncleMeat »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #200
UncleMeat wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google doesn't allow any code on laptops. Everything is done via web IDEs or ssh into a linux machine. So nobody is using brew to obtain dependencies.

Do you work for Google? I'm just doubting you a little. Like the guy from project zero is finding bugs in Windows via ssh to a Linux machine? Definitely going with Doubt here.

There are a few outliers, but yeah. Per policy, no code is allowed on laptops. And because Google's build tooling is very centralized basically everybody works on the same kind of machine.

The folks developing Chrome for Windows or iOS apps might have different workflows, but even then they aren't going to be using brew because of Google's third party code policies.

Re: Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

#232

Post by benreesman »

If people who had to study for the LSAT, or MCAT, or countless other high-intensity selection processes realized that we sat around bitching about LeetCode interviews as the only obstacle to making more annually than some of them ever do, oy vey…

Re: Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

#233

Post by UncleMeat »

onei wrote: post #205
UncleMeat wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google doesn't allow any code on laptops. Everything is done via web IDEs or ssh into a linux machine. So nobody is using brew to obtain dependencies.

Is the code being in a VM mutually exclusive with having homebrew installed?

Why would I install homebrew on a work laptop if I cannot build or run code on my work laptop? Why would I install a dependency management system if company policy is that all third party code is checked into the repo as source and built using blaze?

Re: Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

#235

Post by blueflow »

devonkim wrote: post #227
blueflow wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After seeing all the unreliable and buggy software, i think more gatekeeping in IT would probably be beneficial. You wouldn't let someone do surgery on you that hasn't been to medical school.

Systemic problems being blamed on individuals is not going to help. Of course society is a shared responsibility model essentially but it means even a highly skilled and otherwise technically competent and qualified engineer in an inadequately structured system can regularly produce garbage work. Having to hire nothing but the best to achieve decent or viable output IMO moreso implies that the processes or systems ar…

As an adult its your responsibility to produce sensible quality despite social factors. You can not expect society to hold your hand.

Re: Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

#236

Post by lkxijlewlf »

brhsagain wrote: post #148

All of these supposed "flaws" of leetcode are by design. Big companies want people who are smart enough to do the work, but obedient enough to put up with all the bullshit that comes with working at a big company. What person better matches that than someone who's able and willing to study for and pass a tech version of the SAT? Every anti-leetcode article I read is some version of "leetcode is bad because it measure…

I think there is this:

> Big companies want people who are smart enough to do the work, but obedient enough to put up with all the bullshit that comes with working at a big company.

But then you also have the companies who see other companies do it, so they cargo cult. Those are companies you definitely want to avoid. Their entire stack is because of cargo culting not because of an engineering need.

I think you also have a few of the Bro Culture companies who do this as a hazing ritual.

Re: Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

#237

Post by canyonero »

throwaddzuzxd wrote: post #96

In my team we do technical interviews in three steps: - an algorithmic challenge. It's related to what we do day to day. I work in domain names so we ask to parse a domain name. There are oddities with domain names so we check multiple things: does the candidate know what basic string manipulation functions exist? do they ask questions to get more info? how do they react when we give additional info that break the co…

This is wonderful and IMO the answer to the “broken” software dev interview. Leetcode is a hazing ritual that needs to end.

My engineering org focuses on tasks that are as real-world as possible. Areas we evaluate on:

- Have the candidate update some code based on a feature request close to real world requirements

- Have the candidate do some code review

- Have candidate describe how they productionize an app

Re: Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

#238

Post by thisiswrongggg »

UncleMeat wrote: post #178
l-lousy wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone using a Mac for tech related jobs has a high probability of using brew. That includes a lot of googlers

Google doesn't allow any code on laptops. Everything is done via web IDEs or ssh into a linux machine. So nobody is using brew to obtain dependencies.

...worked in another place which didn't allow local code. It was the most horrible dev experience I had. Cannot fathom why google went that way too.

Re: Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

#239

Post by s17n »

brandall10 wrote: post #218
brhsagain wrote: post #148

All of these supposed "flaws" of leetcode are by design. Big companies want people who are smart enough to do the work, but obedient enough to put up with all the bullshit that comes with working at a big company. What person better matches that than someone who's able and willing to study for and pass a tech version of the SAT? Every anti-leetcode article I read is some version of "leetcode is bad because it measure…

Every unicorny startup I've interviewed w/ that had a standard big-tech interview loop (1 LC style screener + final w/ 2-3 rounds of LC + 1 system design) was chock full of ex-big tech engineers and managers, replete with stories about wanting a faster paced / dynamic environment. So yes, that absolutely is who they are recruiting. It probably comes down to no more than believing big tech companies have the very best…

> More than obedience, it probably is the aspect that they're smart and determined to succeed.

Yup that's what it's about!

The problem with trying to test how good you are at the job is that you simply can't do it in a 1 hour (or even a 1 day) interview. You can however assess how smart somebody is, which is definitely correlated to job performance. It's also connected to growth potential - even if it were somehow possible to accurately measure how good a programmer a candidate is at the moment they are applying for the job, companies would still want to try to predict how good they are likely to be over the next few years.

Re: Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

#240

Post by throwaway2037 »

Dowwie wrote: post #75

Someone who builds a truly novel technology solution involving hundreds of hours of effort gets filtered out of an interview involving contrived scenarios. You may have built the next generation X, but given an array of strings and a fixed width, can you format the text such that each line has exactly maxWidth characters and is fully justified -- in the next 30 minutes? Maybe you should have cultivated that skillset…

No joke: Isn't this the famous Donald Knuth text layout algorithm? I heard it is still used today -- it is that good.
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