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I feel like interviews are more of a legal IQ test than anything else. If you are smart and spend a couple weeks grinding LeetCode, you should be able to solve

I feel like interviews are more of a legal IQ test than anything else. If you are smart and spend a couple weeks grinding LeetCode, you should be able to solve most of those types of problems pretty quickly, so those types of interviews filter out those who either aren't willing to spend time on LeetCode to get the job, or those who aren't smart enough to quickly match up the interview problem with the ones they have seen before. And of course it also filters out people who get really nervous during interviews, or who just happen to get a problem they haven't seen before, but if you are a big tech company you can generally afford false-negatives. IQ is a pretty good predictor of job performance, so from the employers perspective it makes some sense imo, and it also avoids a lot of room for bias accusations.

jartelt 7y ago
At the same time big tech companies are always complaining about not being able to find qualified engineers. A portion of those people who were filtered out because they get nervous during interviews or got stumped by a riddle or esoteric question, could have been entirely qualified to be a good or great engineer. Big tech companies should be designing interviews that don't find just people who are awesome at interviews and riddles.
ilikehurdles 7y ago
Ignoring all the false assumptions you make about IQ, the couple of weeks I could have spent grinding LeetCode I instead spent applying and interviewing at other companies. Maybe I could have had 3 rather than 2 offers by the time I made my decision if I didn't ignore Company X, but I also might not have, as my focus on LC would have taken away focus from preparing for interviewing with companies who know how to hire engineers. In my experience, a company using LC usually means that, if hired, 95% of your coworkers will be young 20-somethings fresh out of college. Generally, that is who has the time and lack of self-worth to put themselves through this process. But the often-mocked LC interview wasn't as prevalent as I thought it would be. As a senior+ engineer I generally saw some system design whiteboarding and some take-homes, with a lot of engineer-run companies proudly proclaiming during the interview process that they don't interview that way. So I get it, LC is the standardized test for college grads entering the real world who have no professional experience to demonstrate. And that's fair, you gotta vet junior engineers somehow, I guess. The one company that asked me straight-from-the-book LC-style puzzlers was an established SF-based startup that opened an office locally. Luckily it was a puzzler I had already watched someone solve on youtube and had memorized so thanks for testing nothing about my technical ability I guess.

jartelt 7y ago

At the same time big tech companies are always complaining about not being able to find qualified engineers. A portion of those people who were filtered out because they get nervous during interviews or got stumped by a riddle or esoteric question, could have been entirely qualified to be a good or great engineer. Big tech companies should be designing interviews that don't find just people who are awesome at interviews and riddles.

ilikehurdles 7y ago

Ignoring all the false assumptions you make about IQ, the couple of weeks I could have spent grinding LeetCode I instead spent applying and interviewing at other companies. Maybe I could have had 3 rather than 2 offers by the time I made my decision if I didn't ignore Company X, but I also might not have, as my focus on LC would have taken away focus from preparing for interviewing with companies who know how to hire engineers. In my experience, a company using LC usually means that, if hired, 95% of your coworkers will be young 20-somethings fresh out of college. Generally, that is who has the time and lack of self-worth to put themselves through this process. But the often-mocked LC interview wasn't as prevalent as I thought it would be. As a senior+ engineer I generally saw some system design whiteboarding and some take-homes, with a lot of engineer-run companies proudly proclaiming during the interview process that they don't interview that way. So I get it, LC is the standardized test for college grads entering the real world who have no professional experience to demonstrate. And that's fair, you gotta vet junior engineers somehow, I guess. The one company that asked me straight-from-the-book LC-style puzzlers was an established SF-based startup that opened an office locally. Luckily it was a puzzler I had already watched someone solve on youtube and had memorized so thanks for testing nothing about my technical ability I guess.