TypeScript types can run DOOM [video]

Post by rafram » Wed, Feb 26, 2025, 9:30 PM UTC

SXX wrote: post #109

ravenstine wrote: post #73

One of the top comments in the video: > If this guy goes for a big tech interview they're still going to ask him how to invert a binary tree The industry's hiring process is so messed up that this is completely believable. "We've decided to prioritize other candidates, as you are strong in the fundamentals but lack the kind of experience in Vue that we're looking for."

By now there is more than one story how some open source developer wasn't hired because their skills with the project they created was not sufficient for the job.

Post by mgfist » Wed, Feb 26, 2025, 9:32 PM UTC

turnsout wrote: post #104

brap wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m 100% sure that if he was being considered for a domain expert role in some domain related to this (e.g. TypeScript) his score in a typical whiteboard interview wouldn’t have been a deciding factor whatsoever. This is a standard hiring track even in big tech. Sometimes you’ll even be exempt from these interviews altogether. But if he was being considered for a mid level generalist role, yeah, none of this would’ve…

> But if he was being considered for a mid level generalist role, yeah, none of this would’ve mattered. And why should it? As someone who has been on the hiring manager side, I'll state the obvious: because it demonstrates insanely good problem-solving skills that would transfer to nearly any challenge.

Post by emmanueloga_ » Wed, Feb 26, 2025, 9:34 PM UTC

Jasper_ wrote: post #98

ravenstine wrote: post #73

One of the top comments in the video: > If this guy goes for a big tech interview they're still going to ask him how to invert a binary tree The industry's hiring process is so messed up that this is completely believable. "We've decided to prioritize other candidates, as you are strong in the fundamentals but lack the kind of experience in Vue that we're looking for."

Has anybody ever figured out what "invert a binary tree" means? That came from Max Howell, and nobody else seems to have ever received that question. The best anyone can figure out is that it's reversing the left and right branches, which seems like it's ten lines of code, at most?

    type Node = { value: T, left?: Node, right?: Node }

    function invertTree(root) {
      if (!root) return null;

      // Swap!
      const tmp = root.left;
      root.left = invertTree(root.right);
      root.right = invertTree(tmp);

      return root;
    };

    function invertTree(root) {
      const stack = [root];
      while (stack.length > 0) {
        const node = stack.pop(); if (!node) continue;

        // Swap!
        const tmp = node.right;
        node.right = node.left;
        node.left = tmp;

        stack.push(node.left);
        stack.push(node.right);
      }
      return root;
    }

Post by bobsmooth » Wed, Feb 26, 2025, 9:38 PM UTC

Post by GinsengJar » Wed, Feb 26, 2025, 9:43 PM UTC

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #154

stjo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think person capable of making doom run in such an environment is incapable of basic tree operations?

I suspect the technical interview devolves into an act of shunting the blame of potential bad hires away at some places. Elite credentials and leetcode shibboleths serve the same purpose: this person has checked the boxes we've agreed upon as important in the hiring process, regardless of the job duties. If they turn out to be a bad hire, who could've known, esp. with that Ivy League bachelor's degree? It's less the…