I think algo/ds interviews are created to test only one thing, and that is hard work. The idea that they test problem solving is mostly bullshit. Most people a

I think algo/ds interviews are created to test only one thing, and that is hard work. The idea that they test problem solving is mostly bullshit. Most people are good at algorithm interviews because they've practiced them a ton. They've seen basically all the different kinds of questions that get asked on an interview, and are able to use that mental database to answer any questions. Most of the time in interviews, interviewers will commend an applicant's "problem solving" skills if they did well on a difficult algo problem, when in all likelihood they've seen that exact problem, or an extremely similar problem before. If the applicant hasn't seen dijkstra's algorithm before and is able to derive it in a 45 minute interview, you would need to hire them on the spot, assuming that Dijkstra himself didn't develop this algorithm in 45 minutes. That is a contrived example, but you get my point. For better or for worse, algo interviews are for testing how much work you've put into studying (mostly worse).