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Python coding interview challenges

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Re: Python coding interview challenges

#191

Post by jorgemf »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #161
jorgemf wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an engineer you should be able to see the global picture and know other things. Because you wont be able to use something to solve your problem if you don't know it in advance. I mean, you don't need to know the details, but you need to know how things works. For example, you might not need an AVL tree in your daily job, but if one day you need it to use it, you wont be able to notice if you don't know what is an…

The amount of things we need to know is not commensurate with salaries for companies that lazily copy someone else's interview. Most of us are not practitioners that get to dictate a lot of the technical decisions. We're just told we need to know what an AVL tree is before we can work on CRUD app #4272095. If you work really hard, learn all of this stuff, and do a really good job and save your company a bunch of trou…

> If you work really hard, learn all of this stuff, and do a really good job and save your company a bunch of trouble by knowing all of this, you won't get a dime for it, and that's the problem

I think that is your problem. I don't stay in companies where I don't feel valued. And anyway you are receiving a salary every month for your work. If you think you should get more, ask for more or move to another place.

For some people security is more important, for it is not. Because I believe that in the current society the companies can fall in few years (Nokia, Canon, ...). My security lies in my knowledge and my skills, and that is something I take with me whereever I am. I recall something I read, it was like this: "A bird is not scared of a branch to break, because it lies his confidence in his skills to fly".

Re: Python coding interview challenges

#192

Post by mythrwy »

riebschlager wrote: post #8
nickpeterson wrote: post #4

"Before we hire you, we first need you to outwit this burmese python..."

I'd rather take my chances with a snake than trying to solve "Add two integers without using + or -".

len([i for s in ([i for i in range(x)], [i for i in range(y)]) for i in s])

Re: Python coding interview challenges

#193

Post by dahart »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #166
dahart wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that, because the number of programmers is increasing, the majority of them are fresh out of school or close to it. Algorithms interviews are largely designed for interviewing people who don't have much experience, so they're skewed toward testing what people learned in school. If after 2 CTO roles you interview for a job and they ask you to write a linked list algorithm, then would you want to work ther…

>Keep in mind that, because the number of programmers is increasing, the majority of them are fresh out of school or close to it. But the number of unfilled positions is also increasing, so we are not closing the gap, right? So the gap is widening, but the requirements to get a position are also going up. That just makes no sense to continue for a long period of time.

If the number of unfilled positions is increasing, that would tend to lower the requirements, not raise them. If the number of filled positions is growing at the same rate as the number of unfilled positions, that would be evidence that the requirements are staying roughly the same on average. (Except I'm sure there some small amount of average improvement and widespread knowledge increase every year that everyone benefits from.)

In any case, it still makes sense for companies to come up with interview strategies for inexperienced devs, and the article at the top is once such way. It doesn't mean companies will interview experienced devs the same way, and in my experience, they don't.

(EDIT I had written some other junk based on me misreading your comment, apologies if you had to spend any time on that.)

Re: Python coding interview challenges

#194

Post by logfromblammo »

quacker wrote: post #122
logfromblammo wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not revealed as a terrible company, perhaps, but as a terrible interviewer. If any company were to quiz me on algorithmic basics, it had better explain to me beforehand why it is among the x% of all hiring companies that actually need to roll their own new solutions in the face of so many well-established libraries. That is, before you ask me to demonstrate a depth-first search, you had better explain to me why I'm g…

> need to roll their own new solutions in the face of so many well-established libraries I'm not defending interview quiz-time, but it isn't (or shouldn't be) about rolling your own solution. It's about understanding concepts. Understanding the basics of time/space complexity are pretty fundamental when designing systems. Developers frequently encounter hashing and (probably less-often) trees, so I don't see an issue…

If you're measuring my design ability in the interview, you had better give me an opportunity to use that ability after being hired.

Too many times have I been asked questions that shaped my expectations of the job, only to be disappointed later on. The worst offender in this respect put me through a technical screen that could only reasonably be passed by someone with a bachelor's degree in CompSci or equivalent work experience, only to later tell me that the code I write "should be understandable by a kid fresh out of high school" (actual quote). I applied to 12 different job postings that night.

The interview led me to believe that I was being hired for my expertise, and the job expectation was actually to be a warm, brainless body in a formerly empty seat. That's why I don't like questions that act as proxies for some other metric. The questions you ask me are telling me about you as much as my answers tell you about me. When you cargo-cult interview procedures from another company, you are actually misrepresenting the nature of your own company as being like the company you stole your interviews from.

Re: Python coding interview challenges

#195

Post by meheleventyone »

jorgemf wrote: post #186
meheleventyone wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think most people are complaining about gaining knowledge but the relevance of the test to job performance or the requirement to study whilst working and raising a family. "... you wont be able to discover how to solve a problem if you don't have knowledge about the solution in advance." Is simply false, whilst research is a skill all of its own it's most definitely possible to go off and learn key techniques…

It is not false, for example Albert Einstein was developing his Theory and he could do it because he was in a research ground where they were doing research about infinitesimal calculus, which was handy for Einstein to apply to his theory. But I think it wouldn't be clear to apply infinitesimal calculus to his theory if he didn't know it in advance. Or at least, we aware of it and its possibilities. When you face a n…

A good job and a good family life are eminently achievable goals in tandem. I personally spend my time out of work learning things outside my field just for the fun of it.

Re: Python coding interview challenges

#196

Post by fwefwwfe »

user5994461 wrote: post #70
bogomipz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. A couple of weeks ago I had a recruiter from Atlassian send me an email saying they were interested an could I complete these 6 problems on Hacker Rank and each challenge has a time limit. Its not enough to outwit a Burmese Python but you need to do it while a clock is ticking. We all know the best performance and indicator of skill always comes from coding with an egg timer or stop watch. Oh and did I mentio…

> Oh and did I mention the Hacker Rank challenge was being asked before even speaking to a human being about the job? I prefer that a lot more than scheduling a 1 hour phone interview during my workday, to do the same stupid questions over the phone, with someone who can describe neither the job nor the company.

It's even better when you or a recruiter has sent them your resume and it's obvious that they've ignored it and are looking at your outdated LinkedIn profile.

Re: Python coding interview challenges

#197

Post by jorgemf »

meheleventyone wrote: post #195
jorgemf wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not false, for example Albert Einstein was developing his Theory and he could do it because he was in a research ground where they were doing research about infinitesimal calculus, which was handy for Einstein to apply to his theory. But I think it wouldn't be clear to apply infinitesimal calculus to his theory if he didn't know it in advance. Or at least, we aware of it and its possibilities. When you face a n…

A good job and a good family life are eminently achievable goals in tandem. I personally spend my time out of work learning things outside my field just for the fun of it.

If you are happy with what you have that is even better. But some people wants to earn millions of $$ a year and be married with a Top model. If they don't have both, then it is not good enough for them. And a lot of people just want something better regardless what they have (forever unhappy people).

Re: Python coding interview challenges

#198

Post by brianwawok »

dr_zoidberg wrote: post #157
brianwawok wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey don't be a quitter, we can make Decimal support way bigger numbers via context

Alternative, buzzwordy approach: let's train a convolutional neural network to do addition!

Can it run the MEAN stack?

Re: Python coding interview challenges

#199

Post by JoblessWonder »

Apocryphon wrote: post #145

Never mind the specifics of the selection process, Silicon Valley's risk-adverse approach to hiring is baffling. Instead of making candidates go through an overly rigorous process, why not embrace California's at-will status and hire and fire often? Employers and employees already view each other with suspicion in terms of loyalty, the former willing to downsize capriciously at any moment, and the latter willing to j…

There is a cost involved with onboarding/offboarding employees which is a common reason why this tactic isn't used. Between the time spend spooling someone up on your internal processes, completing required HR tasks, requisitioning equipment, etc it often makes it a pain to go with the hire/fire quickly method. I'm sure you could build your business around it, but at that point you might need to look at the moral of the company.

Also, if you fire someone in California they will likely file for unemployment which means your UI reserve account requirements might go up.

Re: Python coding interview challenges

#200

Post by neuronexmachina »

kafkaesq wrote: post #177
jorgemf wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an engineer you should be able to see the global picture and know other things. Because you wont be able to use something to solve your problem if you don't know it in advance. I mean, you don't need to know the details, but you need to know how things works. For example, you might not need an AVL tree in your daily job, but if one day you need it to use it, you wont be able to notice if you don't know what is an…

... but if one day you need it to use it, you wont be able to notice if you don't know what is an AVL tree and what is its advantages over other trees. No, what would happen is you'd say to yourself "Hmm, looks like I need a self-balancing tree. Haven't thought about those in N years..." and do a few seconds of keyword searching. The idea that people will be utterly helpless on their jobs without instantaneous photog…

> No, what would happen is you'd say to yourself "Hmm, looks like I need a self-balancing tree. Haven't thought about those in N years..."

You're attacking a strawman which has little to do with the original post or what the other commenter is saying. There's a lot of developers out there who lack the knowledge to ask the question you pose in the first place, so wouldn't end up doing that searching. The type of interviewing you're criticizing is intended to identify developers lacking the kind of base knowledge needed as a foundation for further inquiry.

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