Stop Interviewing with Leet Code

Post by astrange » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 8:08 PM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #363

jmvoodoo wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder which came first? Did they hire those people because they implemented leetcode style interviews, or did they implement those interviews because they originally hired or were founded by ex-bigco folks that simply did what they knew?

The predecessors to leetcode questions were being asked, for example, in PhD defense dissertations as well as some that were highly specific to the company in questions (sort 2MB of data 1MB RAM). Many of the problems are basically late-undergrad, early-graduate CS student problems.

Post by hereyougo » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 8:12 PM UTC

jboy55 wrote: post #359

jmvoodoo wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder which came first? Did they hire those people because they implemented leetcode style interviews, or did they implement those interviews because they originally hired or were founded by ex-bigco folks that simply did what they knew?

Perhaps there's another collectively shared work experience that also created leetcode style interviews. That is dealing with someone who has a degree, can speak well of what it takes to code, but who cannot code to save their life. I have known more than a dozen such "engineers". That's the reason you code during an interview, I think the emphasis on optimal O(N) is just a set of engineers who don't believe it shoul…

  # You have a music player that should be playing a 900 song list randomly.
  # You notice that you keep hearing a song being repeated during your drive and
  # you are curious if its truly random.
  
  from collections import Counter
  import random
  
  r             = random.Random() 
  songs         = range(1,900)
  unplayed      = set(songs)
  
  # You also keep hitting skip in the hopes a particular song comes up. 
  # Write a piece of code that simulates this.  You should tell me three things;
  # 1) the number of songs played before a repeat occurs
  # 2) how many songs needed to be played before you played them all
  # 3) after you succeed in playing them all, how many times has the most common song been played.
  
  counter         = Counter()
  firstrepeat     = None
  totalplays      = 0
  
  while unplayed:
      song = r.choice(songs)
      unplayed -= set([song])
      if firstrepeat is None and song in counter:
          firstrepeat = len(counter)
      counter[song] += 1
      totalplays += 1
  
  print(f"""
  Number of songs played before a repeat:             {firstrepeat}
  Total number songs played:                          {totalplays}
  Most common song:                                   {counter.most_common()[0][0]}
  How many times has the most common song was played: {counter.most_common()[0][1]}
  """)

  $ python3 foo.py

  Number of songs played before a repeat:             50
  Total number songs played:                          7263
  Most common song:                                   375
  How many times has the most common song was played: 17

Post by danaris » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 8:13 PM UTC

brandall10 wrote: post #307

danaris wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leetcode doesn't measure "smart and determined to succeed". It measures "has enough extra time and energy to devote to practicing pointless brainteasers for weeks." In other words, whatever it's intended to do, one of its primary functions in practice is to screen out people who are bright, driven...and poor, working long hours and trying to keep themselves and/or their families going.

Weeks? There are stories on Blind and the LC forums of people taking upwards of a year with pretty hefty real-life constraints. And why wouldn't they, given the opportunity to essentially double comp over standard industry jobs? That's a life changing opportunity if you're in a somewhat unfortunate life situation. That it's a bit of a sacrifice is the point. If you're naturally smart enough this stuff comes quickly,…

Post by corrral » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 8:16 PM UTC

synergy20 wrote: post #522

corrral wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, for one, will probably never subject myself to a FAANG-type interview, but absolutely would study for and take a similar standardized test if it unlocked the same kind of opportunities, and I didn't have to re-take it with every interview.

This is a startup idea in fact, wait, someone is doing that: https://codesignal.com is one that I just learned yesterday, but it's not 'standardized' like what SAT does. In fact I believe software should have some qualification tests, e.g. general coding, database, cloud computing, etc. Like CPA for accountants. Each test should be valid for a few years in each category.

Post by occupant » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 8:25 PM UTC

scanny wrote: post #351

Been an interviewer and interviewee recently, so being on both sides of the track has given me some perspective. This is the current process that I think is fair and holistic: 1. meeting with the candidate, our manager, and some devs talking about their past exp., our company, our team, and their wants 2. Take home coding task based on our day to day work: This is linear with direct instructions for inputs and output…