5 ms·
I don't know of any academic research, but Triplebyte is trying to understand this better. Their interview process involves a little of algo problems and pairin
by vthallam 7y ago
I don't know of any academic research, but Triplebyte is trying to understand this better. Their interview process involves a little of algo problems and pairing on hangouts.
Also, there's no one size fits all theory. There are companies where every ms of time you save by writing a better algorithm makes a big difference and most where it doesn't matter. Take home assignments, pair programming have all been tried and is still used by some companies, but majority still rely on white boards and it seems to work fine.
- umvi 7y agoAre a lot of jobs really algorithm development though? Every job I've had just used existing algorithm implementations for sorting, FFT, etc. I feel like to do well at software interviews I have to brush up on dynamic programming, sorting, greedy, etc. algo development even though I've almost never had to develop a serious performant algorithm on the job.
- EpicEng 7y ago>Are a lot of jobs really algorithm development though Probably not "a lot", but personally I have _only_ worked in companies where they are our bread and butter (Biotech and finance.)
- andrewmutz 7y agoCompanies tend to use algorithms for interviews for new college grads not because that's what the job entails, but because that reflects what the candidate's background was about (college). If someone is fresh out of a 4 year program that was all about data structures, algorithms, operating systems, etc, then demonstrating mastery of those topics tells an employer that a person is smart and can learn large amounts of complex technical material.
- spatley 7y agoI agree that algo questions are useful for recent grads. I find it more frustrating when I see those questions given to candidates for senior positions with 10 or more years of experience. Keeping fresh on the big-O of a bubble sort and rebalancing a binary tree ends up being in addition to building enterprise software solving real-world problems day to day.
- EpicEng 7y ago>it seems to work fine How do we know that? Interviewing is near a total crapshoot from what I can tell based on my 13 years of experience (~8 of which being actively involved in the process, 3 as a decision maker.) I have yet to find a method that weeds out people who can whiteboard, but can't deliver, or those who seem to have a great personality and work ethic, but stop showing up to work and/or throw tantrums when they don't get their way. Obviously some people emit red flags like the Sun emits energy, but I'm I don't believe you can assume it's "working fine" without some baseline definition of "fine" and a corresponding study.
- rpedela 7y ago> How do we know that? Because businesses are still able to solve problems, service customers, etc. Of course, there is room for improvement.
- ghaff 7y agoUnsatisfactory as the whole hiring process can be, I don't actually believe that throwing a pile of resumes in the air and picking up a handful at random would work as well.
- 7y ago