I think knowledge of the concepts is very useful, but precise recall of the algorithmic implementations is absolutely useless. It’s very different for someone

I think knowledge of the concepts is very useful, but precise recall of the algorithmic implementations is absolutely useless. It’s very different for someone to have a solid grasp of, say, cache-aware programming techniques, algorithms and data structures that are necessary for low-latency architectural work, etc. ...but I’m aware of very few positions (if any???) that require the ability to arbitrarily synthesize that information on the spot. EDIT: Originally meant to lead with the fact that I broadly agree with what you’re saying, I just wanted to clarify my original objection.