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If someone is going to be so prompt and complete at forgetting everything, then they may not have a tickling awareness that something might be up when the occas

If someone is going to be so prompt and complete at forgetting everything, then they may not have a tickling awareness that something might be up when the occasion to apply 1st principles knowledge does arise. Seriously, if the algorithmic complexity of a shuffling algorithm is going to be a challenge, why even have a degree!? If someone is so good with the forgetting that they can't even apply "n choose m," just what are people paying tens of thousands of dollars a year to learn in college? The stuff you use all the time in your job is largely arbitrary trivia. However, the knowledge referred to in the example given above are first principles. So your standards fall below the level of being able to apply first principles? I can see why people would want to weed people like that out.

hueving 8y ago
>algorithmic complexity of a shuffling algorithm is going to be a challenge, why even have a degree!? Because complexity analysis is a tiny part of a CS degree. A huge wing of our CS grad department focused on type theory and PL in general and could easily screw up a complexity analysis quiz like that because it's irrelevant to their day-to-day research/work.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  Because complexity analysis is a tiny part of a CS degree Yes, but it's a slow-ball pitch! What's the complexity of filling in an array with its indices? If a CS grad can't solve something just a little more complex than that (for a sloppy/easy version of the question, not the shuffling algorithm expert version) then just what the heck are they learning?
  - cuddlecake 8y ago
    It's obviously constant. Duh!
ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
> just what are people paying tens of thousands of dollars a year to learn in college? I know this wasn't your point, but I would argue that college is a pretty bad investment in terms of a job training program.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  I think a lot of younger folks want to turn it into a 4+ year fun/party camp with minimal training and lots of networking.
nicoburns 8y ago
You assume the candidate has done a CS degree. I would be quite capable of looking up the algorithmic complexity of an algorithm choosing the correct algorithm (or data structure) accordingly if the need came up in my job (which it does now and then). But I don't know it off the top of my head, because I never did a CS degree, and frankly it's knowledge that's not very useful to memorise because it is very easy to google.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  But I don't know it off the top of my head, because I never did a CS degree, and frankly it's knowledge that's not very useful to memorise because it is very easy to google. If the confluence of 2 or 3 requests you were implementing were to cause a nasty O(n^2) or O(n^3) time or space workload, would you have a good chance of realizing it? If your answer is yes, then you'd have what I'd be looking for. If your answer is that you'd figure it out after the fact, after the problem reports came, by Googling, then you would cause a problem and require an additional spate of diagnosing and patching that a better trained programmer would not have.

hueving 8y ago

>algorithmic complexity of a shuffling algorithm is going to be a challenge, why even have a degree!? Because complexity analysis is a tiny part of a CS degree. A huge wing of our CS grad department focused on type theory and PL in general and could easily screw up a complexity analysis quiz like that because it's irrelevant to their day-to-day research/work.

stcredzero 8y ago
Because complexity analysis is a tiny part of a CS degree Yes, but it's a slow-ball pitch! What's the complexity of filling in an array with its indices? If a CS grad can't solve something just a little more complex than that (for a sloppy/easy version of the question, not the shuffling algorithm expert version) then just what the heck are they learning?
- cuddlecake 8y ago
  It's obviously constant. Duh!

ghostbrainalpha 8y ago

> just what are people paying tens of thousands of dollars a year to learn in college? I know this wasn't your point, but I would argue that college is a pretty bad investment in terms of a job training program.

stcredzero 8y ago
I think a lot of younger folks want to turn it into a 4+ year fun/party camp with minimal training and lots of networking.

nicoburns 8y ago

You assume the candidate has done a CS degree. I would be quite capable of looking up the algorithmic complexity of an algorithm choosing the correct algorithm (or data structure) accordingly if the need came up in my job (which it does now and then). But I don't know it off the top of my head, because I never did a CS degree, and frankly it's knowledge that's not very useful to memorise because it is very easy to google.

stcredzero 8y ago
But I don't know it off the top of my head, because I never did a CS degree, and frankly it's knowledge that's not very useful to memorise because it is very easy to google. If the confluence of 2 or 3 requests you were implementing were to cause a nasty O(n^2) or O(n^3) time or space workload, would you have a good chance of realizing it? If your answer is yes, then you'd have what I'd be looking for. If your answer is that you'd figure it out after the fact, after the problem reports came, by Googling, then you would cause a problem and require an additional spate of diagnosing and patching that a better trained programmer would not have.