4 ms·
Knowing the existence of, and understanding the performance characteristics of a broad range of algorithms is, to my mind, a much more useful set of working kno
by SomeHacker44 8y ago
Knowing the existence of, and understanding the performance characteristics of a broad range of algorithms is, to my mind, a much more useful set of working knowledge than the details of any individual algorithm. The latter can always be looked up. It is harder to find out the former and much better to say “yes, there is an algorithm such-and-such that may be applicable here, let me spend 5 minutes checking that.” In my experience, anyway.
- hotcrossbunny 8y agoBroadly speaking, that used to be how design patterns were often treated in interviews. Could you recognise, describe, code, discuss pros, cons and applicability for pattern X in given circumstance. Pretty easy stuff to cram unfortunately, which may be why they may have fallen out of favour in recent times as proxy measure for brains, but depending on the role in question that sort of material was often more likely to be useful in the job than a similarly broad knowledge of algorithms