11–20 of 34 posts
That said, it was very enlightening to me just how anxious I was! There is really no downside whatsoever to the challenge, and the possibility of a quick $100, yet I was still questioning whether I should do it.
So, I encourage you, do it! Failing is not that bad. :-p
Interesting - a debugging challenge in a language where every truly difficult to debug problem is hidden behind performance hungry language features. :) Although I wish I cared enough about Python to know it well enough to have a crack. :P
Interestingly, I normally consider myself a good debugger, and about 15 seconds after the minute, I figured it out. I think I might have done so in a minute, if I hadn't been under a 1 minute time limit.
Overall, an interesting thing to try.
Note you can't get money if you aren't in the US (I was told), but you can still get a t-shirt and brief fame.
you need a working microphone to do this. i wanted to do this for fun, but i didn't know that they'd be relying on voice communication (i didn't watch the video they have embedded on the blog) e: also the prize is for US residents only, apparently (since that's where they are trying to recruit, that only makes sense)
First thing I noticed is that the links at the top of the page don't work (in IE9). ...so, basically, they are looking for developers who "think in algorithms, dream in code, and eat control structures" so they can fix those pesky main navigation links. :-) I think there is something poetic going on here. Sometimes we try so hard to hire people like ourselves we fail to hire the people we need most - those that can f…
Interesting - a debugging challenge in a language where every truly difficult to debug problem is hidden behind performance hungry language features. :) Although I wish I cared enough about Python to know it well enough to have a crack. :P
This challenge has almost nothing to do with Python. If you can't solve the video-featured challenge, it's because you don't know the quicksort algorithm well.
Interesting - a debugging challenge in a language where every truly difficult to debug problem is hidden behind performance hungry language features. :) Although I wish I cared enough about Python to know it well enough to have a crack. :P
This challenge has almost nothing to do with Python. If you can't solve the video-featured challenge, it's because you don't know the quicksort algorithm well.
That's absolutely not true once you add the time limit.
As someone that never touches Python if I don't have to, I'd immediately get derailed for a few seconds (5?) guessing what arr[1:] means, then waste some time worrying about whether "if not arr" properly handles whatever it is that the awkward looking filter-without-using-the-word-filter clause spits back (does it return an empty list? null? does null evaluate to false in Python? how about an empty list? is the one-line fix to change that to "if arr.empty", or whatever is the Python equivalent?), etc.
That sort of stuff is not tough to figure out (especially if you make the assumption that this isn't just a Python-gotcha test), but it creates enough mental slowdown to someone that's not familiar with the language that it's at least a big factor.
Just tried it. Interestingly, I normally consider myself a good debugger, and about 15 seconds after the minute, I figured it out. I think I might have done so in a minute, if I hadn't been under a 1 minute time limit. Overall, an interesting thing to try. Note you can't get money if you aren't in the US (I was told), but you can still get a t-shirt and brief fame.
I could see how they might have to adhere to some sort of policy, yet I don't see how it could be enforced.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This challenge has almost nothing to do with Python. If you can't solve the video-featured challenge, it's because you don't know the quicksort algorithm well.
This challenge has almost nothing to do with Python. That's absolutely not true once you add the time limit. As someone that never touches Python if I don't have to, I'd immediately get derailed for a few seconds (5?) guessing what arr[1:] means, then waste some time worrying about whether "if not arr" properly handles whatever it is that the awkward looking filter-without-using-the-word-filter clause spits back (doe…
The failure to consider the case where the target value is equal to the pivot is one of the classic blunders of writing a quicksort (along with not considering type limits and getting involved in a land war in Asia). Almost so much so that I immediately thought that I could have made a pretty good guess at the bug if they had told me the algorithm beforehand :-)
You could look at the code and try and figure out what's wrong, or you could have a rough idea of what is likely to be wrong with an implementation of an algorithm and try to see if it's dealt with in the code. They're probably looking for the latter type of problem solving.