Leetcode Considered Harmful

It also doesn't help that, as previous HN comment sections prove, a staggeringly high number of people who ace these tests actually just outright cheat. And then they come here and talk about the necessity of using LC to filter out 'unqualified candidates' (ie not them).

https://www.quora.com/How-does-seating-and-hiring-firing-in-...

   My former teacher (he's been a concertmaster of a major city symphony for years, and is also well versed in the different ways in which one can ask "Did you actually practice?") wrote this explanation:

    Think of it as management and labor. Management is Executive Director, Music Director, Principal Guest, staff, etc. Labor is orchestra musicians. Then you have the Board, which is there to raise money. Then you have the volunteers. Bear in mind, orchestras are non-profit, 501(c)(3).

    So between management and musicians there is a CBA, or collective bargaining agreement. Just like the Major League Baseball has one between players and owners. In the CBA, you'll find chapters on hiring and firing. Each Symphony has its own CBA.

    Usually, hiring is done by auditions behind a screen. If you're hired, your first year is the probationary period (sometimes two years). At the end of it, if management deems you fit for the job, you are granted tenure, just like at a university when you're applying for a teaching position. You don't need to re-audition, unless it is for a different title (from section to title chair, etc.), in which case you do. Firing, if it must come down to it, is also explained in the CBA.

    The big symphonies are part of AFM (American Federation of Musicians). Then you have regional orchestras, community orchestras, etc. Some might be unionized, some not, but essentially it sort of works the same way.

    Some concertmasters, like in England, are contracted outside the CBA, so they may be on a 3 or 4 yr contract, or more. But I think it the US, most are part of the CBA.

I agree, as long as companies evaluate candidates by a combination of different tests, this should be the best for everybody.

Two companies for which I went through the whole interview process had 5-7 different interviews, and only one of them was leetcode-style problem. So even if somebody fails at leetcode problem they should excel at something else.

The reality is that there are too many qualified people at the lower end of the pipeline and this is because we don't hire enough people as it is for our current positions, why this happens is really simple. It's to save money. There's a reason why we have terms like rockstar developer and heavily advertise the idea of a developer doing 1000x work of another one, which simply put is not true.

Most improvements to software and technology occur over time with experience and expertise what we see nowadays is an extremely self destructive behavior, at most top companies it results in heavy loss in expertise as most individuals will leave once their stock options can be sold. In order to maximize their profit while providing little to nothing of value to said companies. The idea we pay developers six figure salaries is inflated and has been a net negative. Resulting in inflated egos and an elitist environment which it is debatable to which provides anything of value or close to little at all.

We don't really need certification programs as they're typically used to stop minorities from gaining access to fields due to barriers of entry and the fact they are systemically flawed as it results in people just chasing after their next certification as the "logical" next step instead of actually learning anything of value.

Honestly, companies just need to be comfortable with hiring someone with a credible degree and taking a chance on them, it's basically the same thing as hiring with leetcode anyways according to google there is very little positive correlation. Anything else is ripe with corruption. But even this process can easily be corrupted, e.g. hiring only people from elite universities or select ones you have deals with in the area which already occurs in many places.

This is also the problem with Leetcode: it often doesn't test 'can you code' but 'have you learnt this trick'.