> Unless, you know, you are implementing the standard library for a new language, so that there is no such "off the shelf library" available. The ability to wr

> Unless, you know, you are implementing the standard library for a new language, so that there is no such "off the shelf library" available. The ability to write down a complex algorithm on the whiteboard without any references is not a very good proxy for being able to implement the algorithm in a standard library. It vastly over-selects for people who are good at memorization. I know how to use these algorithms and data structures, and in fact do use many of them regularly. I can even implement them myself when I need to. But I certainly don't go to implement them without access to any references—if you're writing a standard library and don't consult references when doing so, then that's a bigger indication of you being a bad engineer than a good one. It's really just an elaborate signaling ratio that you're willing to devote lots of time to studying. I personally don't think Google is such a mythically fantastic employer that I would spend tons of time studying just to get a job — and that's probably the point.