We have yet to encounter scaling problems that are best solved with custom algorithms; and only once in the last three years have we had a bottleneck related to

We have yet to encounter scaling problems that are best solved with custom algorithms; and only once in the last three years have we had a bottleneck related to computational complexity in our own code. We encounter scaling problems in general probably once every six months; most are solved by proper application of existing open source tooling. Our codebase is chock full of business logic complexity, but very little of our code contains any meaningful custom algorithms. Maintaining that business logic complexity requires a specific mindset that's very different from solving or optimizing algorithmic puzzles. Good CRUD developers aren't necessarily idiots or code monkeys who only know how to glue together Stack Overflow answers. But selecting for people who enjoy / are good at solving HackerRank challenges would just get us unhappy and ill-suited engineers. We select instead for people who have strong software design and architecture skills and get a kick out of improving products and making end users' lives better. The result has been an effective, high-performing team with a high retention rate. So you do what works for you and we'll do what works for us.