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Project Euler

projecteuler.net

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Re: Project Euler

#41

Post by Nicholas_C »

dangoldin wrote: post #35
jboggan wrote: post #29

The best technical interview I ever had involved picking a random Project Euler problem in the hundreds and pair-programming our way through it. The CTO wrote his version in Python and I worked in Perl . . . he was astounded mine ran 8x faster. The same company also had regular hack night where everyone drinks a lot of Tecate, agress on a Project Euler problem and a language no one knows, and races. Fun times.

When I was conducting quantitative interviews I ended up doing the same thing. One of my favorite problems to give was 267 ( http://projecteuler.net/problem=267 ). It has a few "aha" moments but also requires coding to get it done.

As a finance person I really like this one. I'll have to check it out when I get home from work. Thanks!

Re: Project Euler

#42

Post by datawander »

To be honest, I'm shocked this is on the front page as this website has been out for years and already notably mentioned, but I guess it's good to recycle very important websites for those who haven't heard of it.

My favorite problems is 98. This problem, along with the Sudoku one at 96, require much more careful programming than some of the others due the drastically fewer number of people who solved it compared to the surrounding problems.

Re: Project Euler

#43

Post by gaius »

danielweber wrote: post #37
gaius wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep sure, I'd expect any competent programmer to be able to bash out the first dozen without it being too onerous. Think of it as FizzBuzz-on-steroids. Remember this is only a screen, and it's something many programmers would find to be fun anyway!

Our time is still finite, especially when we are in job hunt mode. One party should not expect the other party to invest a lot of time in the process without doing so themselves. I'm particularly sore because I spent a bunch of time working on learning something domain-specific for a potential employer who verbally indicated the interview process would be proceeding, but then forgot to tell me for a week they had dec…

That's why I like Euler for this, there's no possibility that someone is trying to get some free work out of you.

Re: Project Euler

#44

Post by danielweber »

gaius wrote: post #43
danielweber wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our time is still finite, especially when we are in job hunt mode. One party should not expect the other party to invest a lot of time in the process without doing so themselves. I'm particularly sore because I spent a bunch of time working on learning something domain-specific for a potential employer who verbally indicated the interview process would be proceeding, but then forgot to tell me for a week they had dec…

That's why I like Euler for this, there's no possibility that someone is trying to get some free work out of you.

It's not the "free work," it's asking the candidate to make a large time commitment that she cannot use for pursuing other job opportunities.

Re: Project Euler

#45

Post by jboggan »

pmiller2 wrote: post #32
jboggan wrote: post #29

The best technical interview I ever had involved picking a random Project Euler problem in the hundreds and pair-programming our way through it. The CTO wrote his version in Python and I worked in Perl . . . he was astounded mine ran 8x faster. The same company also had regular hack night where everyone drinks a lot of Tecate, agress on a Project Euler problem and a language no one knows, and races. Fun times.

What company was that? Sound like a great place to work!

Mixrank, they're a YC company. Nice folks and really sharp too.

Re: Project Euler

#46

Post by doughj3 »

Project Euler is great but as others here have said it is very math focused. Can anyone share other programming challenge sites? I saw one the other day here on HN in a comment but can't find it again. The only thing I remember is the problem I checked out was a kind of AI / pathfinding for a "floor cleaning robot" and code was submitted directly in the page.

[Edit] Just found it going through my history: https://www.hackerrank.com/

Re: Project Euler

#47

Post by [deleted] »

doughj3 wrote: post #46

Project Euler is great but as others here have said it is very math focused. Can anyone share other programming challenge sites? I saw one the other day here on HN in a comment but can't find it again. The only thing I remember is the problem I checked out was a kind of AI / pathfinding for a "floor cleaning robot" and code was submitted directly in the page. [Edit] Just found it going through my history: https://www…

[deleted]

Re: Project Euler

#48

Post by JasonFruit »

quenlinlom wrote: post #38
peeters wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same way. It was presented to me as a great way to learn new programming languages. But really it's challenging your ability to design algorithms, and overwhelmingly mathematics-related algorithms. (I'm not saying the site itself claims anything different). It doesn't heavily challenge you to advance past a most basic level of a programming language. For example, most Project Euler problems are solved in J…

What we need now is more focus towards females. Men are already sufficiently saturated in the maths/CS fields. What we need is to market the idea of maths as fun to more females.

And midgets. I'm really disappointed that Project Euler doesn't do more to motivate the vertically-challenged to excel in STEM fields.

Re: Project Euler

#49

Post by cevn »

b0b0b0b wrote: post #22

I love project euler, but I've come to the realization that its purpose is to beat programmers soundly about the head and neck with a big math stick. At work last week, we were working on project euler at lunch, and had the one CS PhD in our midst not jumped up and explained the chinese remainder theorem to us, we wouldn't have had a chance.

I have to agree that the math is a bit too much. If you feel like doing algorithms / data structures work, though, perhaps leetcode will appeal to you: http://oj.leetcode.com/

Re: Project Euler

#50

Post by cevn »

doughj3 wrote: post #46

Project Euler is great but as others here have said it is very math focused. Can anyone share other programming challenge sites? I saw one the other day here on HN in a comment but can't find it again. The only thing I remember is the problem I checked out was a kind of AI / pathfinding for a "floor cleaning robot" and code was submitted directly in the page. [Edit] Just found it going through my history: https://www…

Here's one, with a focus on preparing for interview questions: http://oj.leetcode.com/
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