I wonder if its just to see how someone handles stress.
I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews
21–30 of 625 posts
Re: I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews
#22Leetcode style interviews probably serve two functions: 1) A way to suppress wages and job mobility for SWE. Who wants to switch jobs when it means studying for a month or two? Also, if you get unlucky and some try hard drops an atomic LC hard bomb on you now you have an entire company you can no longer apply to for a year. 2) A way to mask bias in the process while claiming that it’s a fair process because everyone…
I'm sure anyone determined to do so can act unfairly regardless of what process is in place, but the fact that there is a standardized test in my mind does the opposite and makes the process much fairer. Assuming a fair-minded interviewer, the process gives a chance to a candidate whose resume may have less vaunted names on it to demonstrate their skill. I'm quite sure that I'd never have had some of the opportunities I have, not having a CS degree, if it weren't for whiteboarding interviews. I can't imagine any possible process that would thwart interviewers intentionally subverting it to hire their friends.
Re: I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews
#23"Leetcode questions are the worst form of interview questions, except for all the others" - Churchill
I too used to hate leetcode questions, but after conducting 100s of interviews as an interviewer, leetcode style questions are the best way to test intelligence and coding skills ive found in general.
However, leetcoding interviews must be paired with system design and topgrading in order to have balanced interviews. Leetcoding alone is incomplete but i find it essential.
Re: I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews
#24Leetcode style interviews probably serve two functions: 1) A way to suppress wages and job mobility for SWE. Who wants to switch jobs when it means studying for a month or two? Also, if you get unlucky and some try hard drops an atomic LC hard bomb on you now you have an entire company you can no longer apply to for a year. 2) A way to mask bias in the process while claiming that it’s a fair process because everyone…
yeah i agree that "if you know how to problem solve you will pass" statement is a joke. you absolutely need to memorize most of these problems as you'll never encounter them out in the real world. i think we need to get better at the behavioral side of interviewing - this should be the juice of getting at whether or not an engineer is good. and if they're really good at lying... CEO material? lol.
Re: I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews
#25Leetcode style interviews probably serve two functions: 1) A way to suppress wages and job mobility for SWE. Who wants to switch jobs when it means studying for a month or two? Also, if you get unlucky and some try hard drops an atomic LC hard bomb on you now you have an entire company you can no longer apply to for a year. 2) A way to mask bias in the process while claiming that it’s a fair process because everyone…
wait, can Lisa Khan at the FTC attack this too?
Re: I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews
#26I am still not sick for this. (╥‸╥)
Re: I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews
#27It's true that nobody is expected to balance a binary tree as part of the job but the point of these questions is to see how you approach the problem and how you communicate your solution. Given that you can't perfectly predict how someone will do at the job, employers use leetcode problems as a proxy. Even those who memorize leetcode solutions must also memorize how it works and understand the solution. Given that the problem is random and you're likely given multiple interviews, it's unlikely you've memorized the exact problem and solution without cheating. If you've memorized enough solutions that it's likely you've seen the problem before and you can understand the solution enough to present it, then you're in the 0.1% and deserve to pass.
Re: I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews
#28[deleted]
Re: I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews
#29I understand the frustration, but at the end of the day I think they do serve a purpose. They're not great at that purpose, but they're good enough and they generally produce false negatives (smart people fail) rather than false positives (you hire an idiot). And this makes sense, because a false negative is low cost (maybe you spend 50% longer interviewing candidates) but a false positive is high cost (you hire an idiot and have to spend months establishing that, firing them and starting the hiring process again).
The side effect of this though, is that it's an extremely painful process for the applicant. Even if you're a great software engineer, you're going to freeze up, miss something, have a bad day, and fail a few interviews. Now for most software engineers failure is an unusual and harrowing experience, so they react really badly to it. Especially ina scenario where it's difficult to blame anyone but yourself. But just don't! It's fine! just move on, there's plenty of jobs and the interview process is a blunt tool, not a final evaluation of your worth in life.
Re: I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews
#30it sucks, but honestly having a very clear metric for success is significantly better than the wishy-washy interviews that predated this. i'd much rather grind and be prepared to just regurgitate some algo/code and explain it than deal with the color of the sky being wrong, interviewer woke up on wrong side of bed, i was coerced into doing a "project" that equated to just unpaid work, etc. whether or not you succeed…
so you’re an apologist for leetcode because of an uninspired false dilemma of another flawed interview style