Glad to hear that the software engineer selection method is determined by this very rigorous process of character assessment. No wonder why big corporations produce such amazing teams.
An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020)
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Re: An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020)
#12I would also add heaps/priority queues to this list. They don't come up as often as HashTables/LinkedLists but come up often enough.
If you wanna be thorough (esp if you are applying at companies known for harder interviews) I would add practicing backtracking problems where you are doing a full exhaustive search of the problem space as well (often O(k^n) or O(n!) complexity). Yes these are often mostly just DFS + Recursion but they have subtlety to them that requires practice for most people. They tend to be tricky to get right in an interview setting without practice as due to the really bad time complexity of most problems of this type they almost never come up in production for most people so they're not even on the radar of most engineers.
Re: An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020)
#13> After being given the algorithm problem, ask for the specific runtime your solution will need to have. Almost certainly, the interviewer will tell you. In my experience, interviewers will rarely tell you the runtime of the optimal solution. Regardless, very interesting blog post.
I’d turn that question back around at the candidate, unless it were for a junior candidate.
I’ll give hints if the candidate is struggling, but I won’t just come out and tell them something like this. If they pushed me hard enough at the start, I would tell them and then fail them on the algorithms/reasoning component of the interview.
Re: An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020)
#14Before people start complaining about leetcode and how it doesnt exemplify skills: its a proxy for a combination of: intelligence and how hard you are willing to study the computer science knowledge shown is just a bonus EDIT: One last thing to throw in, its pretty clear that theres a correlation between the top software companies and how hard their leetcode interviews are. You can claim all you want it doesnt work,…
The former only in case of the latter.
I.e., if someone isn't willing to grind leetcode, their intelligence is irrelevant.
If someone is willing to grind leetcode, then yes, their intelligence is a secondary variable.
Regardless, such styled interviews are intended to minimize the number of false positives (since the companies have so many applicants it's safer to err on the side of "no"; there are more in the pipeline), which means they will also generate a tremendously high number of false negatives.
Re: An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020)
#15Before people start complaining about leetcode and how it doesnt exemplify skills: its a proxy for a combination of: intelligence and how hard you are willing to study the computer science knowledge shown is just a bonus EDIT: One last thing to throw in, its pretty clear that theres a correlation between the top software companies and how hard their leetcode interviews are. You can claim all you want it doesnt work,…
You've to be a genius to solve a "hard" unseen leetcode problem in 15 mins correctly. Facebook is notorious at expecting candidates to regurgitate solutions to problems in 15 mins. Intelligence plays a lesser role than exhaustive and painful practice which involves solving the same problem multiple times. It's a full-fledged examination that expects you to excel while being constantly watched and judged.
Re: An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020)
#16Many interviewers ask candidates to explain their thinking. I don't think this dubious process of elimination would pass that test.
Right? When I’m interviewing I care most about the thought process and the ability to communicate in depth about something technical, the actual solution isn’t really that important at all.
Re: An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020)
#17That website's choice of font colour makes for frustratingly low contrast and therefore is a recipe for eye strain.
I didn't waste time reading it.
Re: An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020)
#18> After being given the algorithm problem, ask for the specific runtime your solution will need to have. Almost certainly, the interviewer will tell you. In my experience, interviewers will rarely tell you the runtime of the optimal solution. Regardless, very interesting blog post.
I’d turn that question back around at the candidate, unless it were for a junior candidate. I’ll give hints if the candidate is struggling, but I won’t just come out and tell them something like this. If they pushed me hard enough at the start, I would tell them and then fail them on the algorithms/reasoning component of the interview.
Why??
Re: An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020)
#19Glad to hear that the software engineer selection method is determined by this very rigorous process of character assessment. No wonder why big corporations produce such amazing teams.
I am not gonna die on a hill defending these types of interviews but they are infinitely better than the alternatives. Alternatives are often subjective criteria like "culture fit" which can lead to nepotism/other types of biases or hiring being done by sorting resumes based on the prestige level of the college of the applicant and just running down the list from the top (which happens in other professions like law).
Ofcourse the interview process is (or atleast is supposed to be multifaced) and passing these problems is just one of the facets of the process. A great candidate can bomb one of these questions but I wouldn't necessarily reject them just because of that (although that happens in practice in the industry) and wouldn't necessarily okay someone just because they aced one of these questions.
I'd take complaining about these type of problems any day over complaining about only being able to get a job in certain companies by having connections or having gone to an Ivy League school.
Re: An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020)
#20Many interviewers ask candidates to explain their thinking. I don't think this dubious process of elimination would pass that test.
Narrowing the solution space makes sense. "I don't see how we can apply a DFS to this problem, so let me see if I can use a hash".