5 ms·
I would disagree. I was far better at that sort of thing straight out of university where we did a lot of small scale coding problems. Now I think a lot more ab
by collyw 9y ago
I would disagree. I was far better at that sort of thing straight out of university where we did a lot of small scale coding problems. Now I think a lot more about architecture and avoiding clever coding, more about database design and how everything fits together. I write far better code than I did 15 years ago, but I am poorer at white board style problems.
- akvadrako 9y agoAny decent programmer without a major handicap should be able to come up with a simple algorithm on the fly and write it on a whiteboard. That doesn't mean you have to be good at it; you may take your time, the syntax doesn't matter and it'll likely not be totally correct. But if you can't do it at all, which many candidates can't, I find it hard to believe you could be a useful programmer in any capacity.
- rkangel 9y agoIf we were talking about Google interview style problems - data structures and algorithms I might agree. If you can't do something as simple as FizzBuzz, or reverse a string (in a language of your choice) then you aren't a programmer. You might be something else - a system engineer, possibly an architect - but you are not going to be useful in the role of writing code.
- collyw 9y agoI am probably in agreement with you when you go down to that level of programing basics.
- bartread 9y agoI get that, and I'm certainly not disputing the huge amount of extra skills you gain throughout your career. But reversing a string is categorically not clever coding.
- IshKebab 9y agoYes... but you know what a hash map is and when to use one right?