3 ms·

At that point you may as well just leave. You’re not going to talk the interviewer out of doing the interview. What I don’t understand though is this: why not

At that point you may as well just leave. You’re not going to talk the interviewer out of doing the interview. What I don’t understand though is this: why not just do the problem? People ask these kinds of questions to see how you solve problems and what it’s like to work with you. They ask the same question to every candidate so they can calibrate. They ask questions to known problems so they can see how you will handle unknown problems (ie the job). How else do you expect them to interview you?

sidlls 9y ago
> What I don’t understand though is this: why not just do the problem? Because none of the work I'm interested in deals with CS trivia at that level, and it generally is a strong indicator that the company is engaged in one or more terrible practices like, e.g., incorrectly thinking Google's hiring process is generalizable or that CS trivia is the same as engineering. Or else it is looking for someone who doesn't know or care to think about the bigger picture and solve bigger problems than what they can pick out of a textbook (i.e. they're looking for a technician, not an engineer). I'm not a fresh graduate looking for my first job in which I'll spend my day throwing code at an editor to implement someone else's designs because I lack the experience and wisdom to participate in the design process, nor am I ignorant and arrogant enough to believe a little understanding of DS&A is sufficient to cover all or even most of the important problems in engineering a product. > They ask questions to known problems so they can see how you will handle unknown problems That doesn't make any seunse. These kinds of problems test memorization and little else. > How else do you expect them to interview you? By asking intelligent questions having to do with problem solving and not running through the college level CS equivalent of basic arithmetic.
- jeremy_wiebe 9y ago
  We don’t have algorithm problems at our coding interview but they are relatively simple problems. You’d be surprised how a simple problem _does_ filter candidates that can “bluff” their way up to an actual co-sign interview. In my limited experience it can give the interviewer valuable Info. Also, at my company this serves as a jumping off point for other questions. Scaling, concurrency, networking etc. All great for seeing breadth of knowledge and problem solving/talking through a solution type skills which I think are relevant in day to day work.

sidlls 9y ago

> What I don’t understand though is this: why not just do the problem? Because none of the work I'm interested in deals with CS trivia at that level, and it generally is a strong indicator that the company is engaged in one or more terrible practices like, e.g., incorrectly thinking Google's hiring process is generalizable or that CS trivia is the same as engineering. Or else it is looking for someone who doesn't know or care to think about the bigger picture and solve bigger problems than what they can pick out of a textbook (i.e. they're looking for a technician, not an engineer). I'm not a fresh graduate looking for my first job in which I'll spend my day throwing code at an editor to implement someone else's designs because I lack the experience and wisdom to participate in the design process, nor am I ignorant and arrogant enough to believe a little understanding of DS&A is sufficient to cover all or even most of the important problems in engineering a product. > They ask questions to known problems so they can see how you will handle unknown problems That doesn't make any seunse. These kinds of problems test memorization and little else. > How else do you expect them to interview you? By asking intelligent questions having to do with problem solving and not running through the college level CS equivalent of basic arithmetic.

jeremy_wiebe 9y ago
We don’t have algorithm problems at our coding interview but they are relatively simple problems. You’d be surprised how a simple problem _does_ filter candidates that can “bluff” their way up to an actual co-sign interview. In my limited experience it can give the interviewer valuable Info. Also, at my company this serves as a jumping off point for other questions. Scaling, concurrency, networking etc. All great for seeing breadth of knowledge and problem solving/talking through a solution type skills which I think are relevant in day to day work.