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I think you need a basic understanding of data structures and algorithms. But there is no substitute for actually building stuff. Focus on building things above

I think you need a basic understanding of data structures and algorithms. But there is no substitute for actually building stuff. Focus on building things above everything else. Theory and actual craftsmanship often are two separate things. Being able to get the questions of Google and Amazons interviews correct is basically good for one thing and one thing only – getting hired at those places. I have done hundreds of interviews and there are so many other things that I look for before evaluating their knowledge of bloom filters. Maybe I am old school. I’ve met a couple of developers who know all the theory but who could never get anything done and delivered. Then again, my company isn’t Google.

sidcool 8y ago
This helps. Thanks
nnd 8y ago
What other things you look at in potential candidates?
- surfsvammel 8y ago
  I want team players with drive, who takes initiative, who are willing to learn as they go and who will speak up and tell me when I’m wrong. People with integrity and principles. I’m looking out for warning signals. People who will say “that’s not my job”. Small things. People who are too sure of themselves or small things such if they bring their coffe cup with them out of the interview or not. I don’t want people who pretend that they know answers to questions they do not. I’d like them to say I don’t know at least once during the interview. On the technical side I look for people who can tell me about real problems they have faced in real projects. How they handled that situation. How they approach troubleshooting and debugging in general. I want to hear how they talk about software in general. I want them to not be fundamentalists in any direction. I want people who can see both the positive and the negative aspects of concepts like OOP, functional programming, unit testing or whatever it might be. I want them to be able to argue both for and against different ways of solving problems. And that’s just the start of it. Hope it helps.
  - potta_coffee 8y ago
    That sounds like the kind of place I'd like to work. Are you hiring?
ummonk 8y ago
Bloom filters are not a common data structure. Google ain’t gonna check what you know about them.
- souprock 8y ago
  It's funny you say that, because Bloom filters are one of the few non-trivial data structures used in a project I have here with over 3 million lines of code. It's an emulation project with kernel drivers for hardware virtualization and all sorts of exotic functionality. Most needs are covered by arrays and linked lists. Recently we added some AVL trees, and of course hardware data structures (for page tables, etc.) must be implemented as specified. No, we don't demand that on an interview.

sidcool 8y ago

This helps. Thanks

nnd 8y ago

What other things you look at in potential candidates?

surfsvammel 8y ago
I want team players with drive, who takes initiative, who are willing to learn as they go and who will speak up and tell me when I’m wrong. People with integrity and principles. I’m looking out for warning signals. People who will say “that’s not my job”. Small things. People who are too sure of themselves or small things such if they bring their coffe cup with them out of the interview or not. I don’t want people who pretend that they know answers to questions they do not. I’d like them to say I don’t know at least once during the interview. On the technical side I look for people who can tell me about real problems they have faced in real projects. How they handled that situation. How they approach troubleshooting and debugging in general. I want to hear how they talk about software in general. I want them to not be fundamentalists in any direction. I want people who can see both the positive and the negative aspects of concepts like OOP, functional programming, unit testing or whatever it might be. I want them to be able to argue both for and against different ways of solving problems. And that’s just the start of it. Hope it helps.
- potta_coffee 8y ago
  That sounds like the kind of place I'd like to work. Are you hiring?

ummonk 8y ago

Bloom filters are not a common data structure. Google ain’t gonna check what you know about them.

souprock 8y ago
It's funny you say that, because Bloom filters are one of the few non-trivial data structures used in a project I have here with over 3 million lines of code. It's an emulation project with kernel drivers for hardware virtualization and all sorts of exotic functionality. Most needs are covered by arrays and linked lists. Recently we added some AVL trees, and of course hardware data structures (for page tables, etc.) must be implemented as specified. No, we don't demand that on an interview.