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Author here :) Thanks for the note--this is interesting. Target audience is folks who never learned this stuff, or learned it but forgot it. Interesting to hea

Author here :) Thanks for the note--this is interesting. Target audience is folks who never learned this stuff, or learned it but forgot it. Interesting to hear you had a different assumption from the title. If you want something trickier, check these ones out: https://www.interviewcake.com/question/stock-price https://www.interviewcake.com/question/stock-price https://www.interviewcake.com/question/swift/find-duplicate-optimize-for-space https://www.interviewcake.com/question/swift/find-duplicate-...

1024core 9y ago
> Target audience is folks who never learned this stuff, But then why would they be interviewing for a coding job anyways? Shouldn't a coder know what's a RAM, and that it's different from secondary storage??
- gameguy43 9y ago
  I'm thinking a lot about folks who come out of coding "boot camps." Those folks for the most part have /heard/ of "RAM" and "disc," but might not know why they both exist and what each one does.
  - 1024core 9y ago
    I would not want to hire anyone who doesn't have _some_ idea of what these things are, and how they work.
    - CPLX 9y ago
      Then presumably you're able to appreciate the value in someone explaining it to them in a blog post.
trevor-e 9y ago
I suggest that you market the series in a different way, perhaps "An Introduction to Data Structures", or something along those lines. Out of all the bullets in your outline you really only cover lists (random access, linked) and hash tables as actual data structures. That's partly why I expected a totally different article based on the title. You could argue that the others are technically data structures, but I'm willing to bet most people will assume your standard list, map, heap, trie, tree, graph, etc. It's kind of like saying "Calculus for AP tests" and then only covering algebra up to Riemann sums. Thanks for the links, I'll give them both a shot. edit: just remembered that Calculus isn't on the SAT :)
- gameguy43 9y ago
  Iiiiinteresting. Definitely agree that the first half of the article isn't exactly data structures yet. But I just struggle with calling something "An inroduction to X." Have you ever heard "an introduction" and thought "oh, that's what I need!" I picture a super-dry textbook. Or one of those YouTube videos that promises to teach you how to do a thing but starts off with the person saying, "Now, before we get started..." and talks about nothing for 5 minutes before actually teaching you the thing.
rootlocus 9y ago
I really enjoyed "Find a duplicate, Space Edition™", unfortunately I needed the last hint before finding a solution that doesn't modify the original array. Suggestion: Don't show hints for steps I already skipped. I stopped at "We can do this without destroying the input.", but had to scroll through all the hints before reaching the one I needed.
- gameguy43 9y ago
  Good idea!

1024core 9y ago

> Target audience is folks who never learned this stuff, But then why would they be interviewing for a coding job anyways? Shouldn't a coder know what's a RAM, and that it's different from secondary storage??

gameguy43 9y ago
I'm thinking a lot about folks who come out of coding "boot camps." Those folks for the most part have /heard/ of "RAM" and "disc," but might not know why they both exist and what each one does.
- 1024core 9y ago
  I would not want to hire anyone who doesn't have _some_ idea of what these things are, and how they work.
  - CPLX 9y ago
    Then presumably you're able to appreciate the value in someone explaining it to them in a blog post.

trevor-e 9y ago

I suggest that you market the series in a different way, perhaps "An Introduction to Data Structures", or something along those lines. Out of all the bullets in your outline you really only cover lists (random access, linked) and hash tables as actual data structures. That's partly why I expected a totally different article based on the title. You could argue that the others are technically data structures, but I'm willing to bet most people will assume your standard list, map, heap, trie, tree, graph, etc. It's kind of like saying "Calculus for AP tests" and then only covering algebra up to Riemann sums. Thanks for the links, I'll give them both a shot. edit: just remembered that Calculus isn't on the SAT :)

gameguy43 9y ago
Iiiiinteresting. Definitely agree that the first half of the article isn't exactly data structures yet. But I just struggle with calling something "An inroduction to X." Have you ever heard "an introduction" and thought "oh, that's what I need!" I picture a super-dry textbook. Or one of those YouTube videos that promises to teach you how to do a thing but starts off with the person saying, "Now, before we get started..." and talks about nothing for 5 minutes before actually teaching you the thing.

rootlocus 9y ago

I really enjoyed "Find a duplicate, Space Edition™", unfortunately I needed the last hint before finding a solution that doesn't modify the original array. Suggestion: Don't show hints for steps I already skipped. I stopped at "We can do this without destroying the input.", but had to scroll through all the hints before reaching the one I needed.

gameguy43 9y ago
Good idea!