3 ms·

> How, for example, would you evaluate whether they tell you the truth about their past project? How is that any better than hiring a terrible dev that just sp

> How, for example, would you evaluate whether they tell you the truth about their past project? How is that any better than hiring a terrible dev that just spent 3 months memorizing Leetcode solutions? Aren't they essentially being dishonest about their skills? >time-consuming Phone screens are already several hours over several days and on-sites are typically 8 hour affairs. Is this not already time consuming? Genuinely confused by the Stockholm Syndrome-like mindset that devs have for Whiteboard interviews.

YorkshireSeason 8y ago
memorizing Leetcode solutions Are the hard Leetcode questions rote memorable? I have my doubts. Indeed from my own experience with Leetcode is I can only do well on the questions that I think quite hard about. Recently I tried to do a Leetcode question marked Medium, but my 3 line solution (while correct, and working on my own test cases) always resulted in "Time Limit Exceeded". I studied their test cases, and realised that my brute-force solution was of exponential time complexity. I then read of the discussion of the problem, was so delighted with, and surprised by one of the proposed solutions (linear time) that I felt compelled to write down the loop invariant in Hoare logic! Fun evening, and I'll never forget this neat algorithmic trick. I think that practising enough Leetcode so as to do well on the Medium/Hard questions requires developing an understanding of algorithms which is highly useful in practise, in particular, if you work with large data sets, clever algorithms are unavoidable for getting anything done. Have a look at the list of past ACM coding contest winners, e.g. the 1993 winners [1] include Craig Silverstein (first hire at Google) and Tony Hsieh (Zappos, LinkEchange). Summary: I don't believe that doing 3 months coding challenges is meaningfully described as memorisation. On top of that, doing coding challenges is perfectly compatible with asking other questions. [1] https://icpc.baylor.edu/community/history-icpc-1993 https://icpc.baylor.edu/community/history-icpc-1993
- jimjansen1 8y ago
  I think you misunderstood. It's certainly possible to learn a lot by doing Leetcode. I'm saying that since solutions are available to their problems that you could simply memorize as many of them as you can and would probably pass most whiteboard interviews with memorized optimal solutions

YorkshireSeason 8y ago

memorizing Leetcode solutions Are the hard Leetcode questions rote memorable? I have my doubts. Indeed from my own experience with Leetcode is I can only do well on the questions that I think quite hard about. Recently I tried to do a Leetcode question marked Medium, but my 3 line solution (while correct, and working on my own test cases) always resulted in "Time Limit Exceeded". I studied their test cases, and realised that my brute-force solution was of exponential time complexity. I then read of the discussion of the problem, was so delighted with, and surprised by one of the proposed solutions (linear time) that I felt compelled to write down the loop invariant in Hoare logic! Fun evening, and I'll never forget this neat algorithmic trick. I think that practising enough Leetcode so as to do well on the Medium/Hard questions requires developing an understanding of algorithms which is highly useful in practise, in particular, if you work with large data sets, clever algorithms are unavoidable for getting anything done. Have a look at the list of past ACM coding contest winners, e.g. the 1993 winners [1] include Craig Silverstein (first hire at Google) and Tony Hsieh (Zappos, LinkEchange). Summary: I don't believe that doing 3 months coding challenges is meaningfully described as memorisation. On top of that, doing coding challenges is perfectly compatible with asking other questions. [1] https://icpc.baylor.edu/community/history-icpc-1993 https://icpc.baylor.edu/community/history-icpc-1993

jimjansen1 8y ago
I think you misunderstood. It's certainly possible to learn a lot by doing Leetcode. I'm saying that since solutions are available to their problems that you could simply memorize as many of them as you can and would probably pass most whiteboard interviews with memorized optimal solutions