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Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

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Re: Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

#361

Post by another_twist »

pavlov wrote: post #246
another_twist wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not really memorizing solutions. Yes you can get quite far by doing so but follow ups will trip people up. However if you have memorized it and can answer follow ups, I dont see a problem with Leetcode style problems. Problem solving is about pattern matching and the more patterns you know and can match against, the better your ability to solve problems. Its a learnable skill and better to pick it up now. Persona…

Ironic that you’re touting these puzzles as useful interviewing techniques while also admitting that ChatGPT can solve them just fine. If you’re hiring software engineers by asking them questions that are best answered by AI, you’re living in the past.

That was because the parent complained about not having good write ups. You can use GPT which has already been trained on publicly available solutions to generate a very good explanation. Like a coaching buddy. Keeping in mind there are paid solutions that charge 15k USD for this type of thing, being able to upskill at just 20bucks a month is an absolute steal.

Re: Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

#362

Post by runeblaze »

zzzeek wrote: post #144

I've never heard of a "dynamic programming algorithm". Read wikipedia and it seems to mean....use a recursive function? The coin problem is an easy recursive problem (I just wrote the code for it to make sure my old brain can still do it).

The coin problem is like the intro to it. Try some of the codeforces one :skull:

Re: Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

#363

Post by SJC_Hacker »

the_af wrote: post #12

> The "smart" answer is to use a dynamic programming algorithm, which I didn't know how to do. So I failed the interview. Really? This kind of interview needs to go away. However, coding interviews are useful. It's just that "knowing the trick" shouldn't be the point. The point is whether the candidate knows how to code (without AI), can explain themselves and walk through the problem, explain their thought processes…

The bar is so high nowadays that simply being able to talk intelligentyly about the problem, ask clarifying questions, getting an inefficient solution and coding it up well does not pass muster.

Even getting an efficient algorithm basically right, is no guarantee.

In some cases there might be alternative solutions which have some tradeoffs, and you might have to come up with those, as well

Miss a counterexample? Even if you get it after a single hint?. Fuck you, you're out. I can find someone who doesn't need the hint

Re: Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

#364

Post by SJC_Hacker »

MarcelOlsz wrote: post #347
spike021 wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if that's a typo. 5 years ago was also pretty LC-heavy. Ten years ago it was more based on Cracking the Coding Interview. So i'd guess what you're referring to is even older than that.

Talking about general jobs not FAANG adjacent.

Nearly everyone is FAANG adjacent

Apart from those companies where social capital counts for more ...

Re: Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

#365

Post by tavavex »

arcbyte wrote: post #278
tavavex wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like I'm entering a whole different universe on HN. Maybe things are this equal and fair on the senior, high-paying part of the spectrum that most people here seem to occupy, but in general there's a huge power imbalance in job interviews. Unless you're special and the company wants you in particular, it costs them nothing to turn you down in favor of the other 10000 perfect applicants, while you must find a j…

> the general feeling among my peers is that I must bend to the interviewer's whims This is just conflict avoidance and naivety. After a while you start to realize that there's a whole world of people just like on HN and *we hire people too*. No matter what you do, youll end up in the place you deserve. If you try to be sneaky, you will end up working for people who are either easily fooled or see right through how t…

> After a while you start to realize that there's a whole world of people just like on HN and we hire people too. No matter what you do, youll end up in the place you deserve.

I mean, I'm hoping for that too. But it also feels like this only applies as long as there's a balance of likeminded people who are already in the industry vs. the people looking to get a job. For someone like me, without a real network, meeting a person like the kind you mention is extremely unlikely. Even then, most of these people are looking for more qualified candidates, since there's an overabundance of juniors and seniority is a good predictor for being really passionate about their field. So, maybe I'll figure that out someday, but right now I just need a job, and what people in my cohort do is a way to try and get a job at all costs.

Re: Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

#366

Post by saghm »

roncesvalles wrote: post #264
samiv wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The LC interviews are like testing people how fast they can run 100m after practice, while the real job is a slow arduous never ending jog with multiple detours and stops along the way. But yeah that's the game you have to play now if you want the top $$$ at one of the SMEGMA companies. I wrote (for example) my 2D game engine from scratch (3rd party libs excluded) https://github.com/ensisoft/detonator but would not b…

>The LC interviews are like testing people how fast they can run 100m after practice Ah, but, the road to becoming good at Leetcode/100m sprint is: >a slow arduous never ending jog with multiple detours and stops along the way Hence Leetcode is a reasonably good test for the job. If it didn't actually work, it would've been discarded by companies long ago. Barring a few core library teams, companies don't really care…

> If it didn't actually work, it would've been discarded by companies long ago

You're assuming that something else works better. Imagine if we were in a world where all interviewing techniques had a ton of false positives and negatives without a clear best choice. Do you expect that companies would just give up, and not hire at all, or would they pick based on other factors (e.g. minimizing the amount of effort needed on the company side to do the interviews)? Assuming you accept the premise that companies would still be trying to hire in that situation, how can you tell the difference between the world we're in now and that (maybe not-so) hypothetical one?

Re: Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

#367

Post by saghm »

Figs wrote: post #350
samiv wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The LC interviews are like testing people how fast they can run 100m after practice, while the real job is a slow arduous never ending jog with multiple detours and stops along the way. But yeah that's the game you have to play now if you want the top $$$ at one of the SMEGMA companies. I wrote (for example) my 2D game engine from scratch (3rd party libs excluded) https://github.com/ensisoft/detonator but would not b…

> SMEGMA companies Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon, I'm guessing... but, what are the other two?

"Startups" and "Enterprise"? I guess that basically covers everything

Re: Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

#368

Post by addaon »

tavavex wrote: post #192
yepitwas wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the candidate asks if you're sure you want them to use any language and you say "yes", and then get pissy when they do, the candidate isn't the one who sabotaged anything and they're dodging a bullet if they "fail".

I feel like I'm entering a whole different universe on HN. Maybe things are this equal and fair on the senior, high-paying part of the spectrum that most people here seem to occupy, but in general there's a huge power imbalance in job interviews. Unless you're special and the company wants you in particular, it costs them nothing to turn you down in favor of the other 10000 perfect applicants, while you must find a j…

> As someone just starting out, the general feeling among my peers is that I must bend to the interviewer's whims, any resistance or pushback will get you rejected.

But interviews are bidirectional. The company is deciding if they want me, and I’m deciding if I want them. If I chose to use Self or Forth as the whiteboard context for the conversation we’re having, it’s deliberately to make the interviewer think, and hopefully learn. If the experience of thinking differently about a problem (that they chose!) and learning something new is a negative signal to them, that’s fine —- it being a negative signal to them is a negative signal to me, and I don’t want to be there anyway! If they’re excited, and intrigued, and give “12 o’clock” feedback — well, that’s the team I want to work with. So I’ve helped us both accomplish our goals (making accurate assessments about fit), and aligned our metrics along the way.

Re: Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

#369

Post by saghm »

photonthug wrote: post #236
Tenemo wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's even a rocket emoji in server console.logs... There are memes with ChatGPT and rocket emojis as a sign of AI use. The whole repo looks super vibe-coded, emojis, abundance of redundant comments, all in perfect English and grammar, and the readme also has that "chatty" feel to it. I'm not saying that using AI for take-home assignments is bad/unethical overall, but you need to be honest about it. If he was lying…

As a big believer in documentation and communication in general, there's this inevitable double-bind that people hate whatever you give them and also hate it if you give them nothing. LLMs have made this worse. No emojis and any effort to be comprehensive? Everyone complains "what is this wall of text", or "this is industry not grad school so cut it out with the fancy stuff" or "no one spends that much time on anythi…

> No emojis and any effort to be comprehensive? Everyone complains "what is this wall of text", or "this is industry not grad school so cut it out with the fancy stuff" or "no one spends that much time on anything and it must be AI generated". (Frequently just a way of saying that they hate to read, and naively believe that even irreducibly complex stuff is actually simple).

> Stuff that's got emojis, a friendly casual tone and isn't information dense? Well that's very chatty and cute, it also has to be AI and can't be valuable.

As a counterpoint, I can confidently say that I've never once had anyone give any feedback to me on the presence or absence of emojis in code I've written, whether for an interview, work, or personal projects, and I've never had anyone accuse my documentation of being AI generated or gotten feedback in an interview that my code didn't have enough documentation. There's a pretty wide spectrum between "indistinguishable from what I get when I give an LLM the same assignment as my interviewee" and "lacking any sort of human-readable documentation whatsoever".

Re: Many hard LeetCode problems are easy constraint problems

#370

Post by Zarathruster »

m000 wrote: post #250
wyager wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leetcode with no prep is a pretty decent coding skill test The problem is that it is too amenable to prep You can move your score like 2stddev with practice, which makes the test almost useless in many cases On good tests, your score doesn't change much with practice, so the system is less vulnerable to Goodharting and people don't waste/spend a bunch of time gaming it

I think LC is used mostly as a metric of how much tolerance you have for BS and unpaid work: If you are willing to put unpaid time to prepare for something with realistically zero relevance with the day-to-day duties of the position, then you are ripe enough to be squeezed out.

Cynical, but correct. I've long maintained that these trials, much like those we encounter in the school system, are only partially meant to test aptitude. Perhaps more importantly, they measure submissive compliance.
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