4 ms·

Why the fuck would CS graduates be afraid of DP problems, NP-completeness or approximation algos??? That’s literally the table stakes of our profession. The pr

Why the fuck would CS graduates be afraid of DP problems, NP-completeness or approximation algos??? That’s literally the table stakes of our profession. The problem is rewarding rote memorization in a whiteboard interview, at the expense of actual understanding, and ability to research the problem.

AI_WAIFU 6y ago
Because unlike in the real world, you can't just google the solution or look it up in a textbook during an interview.
mayank 6y ago
> that’s literally the table stakes of our profession Table stakes for what exactly?
- cannabis_sam 6y ago
  Computer science graduates...? Like I said in the comment.
- kristianov 6y ago
  For sudo scientists.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> Why the fuck would CS graduates be afraid of DP problems, NP-completeness or approximation algos??? That’s literally the table stakes of our profession. If the profession being discussed is "academic work in Computer Science", sure. If it is "software development", those things absolutely are not really "table stakes". If it is "software engineering", then I don't think there is broad consensus on what that profession even is, much less what table stakes in it are.
- cannabis_sam 6y ago
  Are you seriously claiming Guido van Rossum was hired for software development/engineering..? I don’t understand the context switching here.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > Are you seriously claiming Guido van Rossum was hired for software development/engineering..? No, nor do I think he was he hired for the other thing I discussed, academic computer science. The post I was responding to made a general comment about "CS graduates" and "our profession"; I was responding to that. Whether that post itself was material to, or merely tangential to, the discussion of GvR's hiring at Microsoft is an argument that, while perhaps interesting to some, was not the focus or concern of my response.
    - cannabis_sam 6y ago
      My post was a response to a specific comment, please don’t take it out of context.
emddudley 6y ago
Because these problems can have some subtleties that are hard to get right in a high-pressure environment. Some interviewers will completely write you off for small mistakes.
- cannabis_sam 6y ago
  That sounds interesting! Do you have any examples? I would have thought that if you actually needed people to perform under pressure, you would design your test explicitly around that, instead of using “comfort with the whiteboard” as a proxy...
TuringNYC 6y ago
That might be a fair statement for some roles, but what about the second part where you code it up and write the code on a whiteboard w/o running/debugging and have to get it right in 45min?
- cannabis_sam 6y ago
  I’m not sure I understand..? Do you mean it should be used as an actual speed test?

AI_WAIFU 6y ago

Because unlike in the real world, you can't just google the solution or look it up in a textbook during an interview.

mayank 6y ago

> that’s literally the table stakes of our profession Table stakes for what exactly?

cannabis_sam 6y ago
Computer science graduates...? Like I said in the comment.
kristianov 6y ago
For sudo scientists.

dragonwriter 6y ago

> Why the fuck would CS graduates be afraid of DP problems, NP-completeness or approximation algos??? That’s literally the table stakes of our profession. If the profession being discussed is "academic work in Computer Science", sure. If it is "software development", those things absolutely are not really "table stakes". If it is "software engineering", then I don't think there is broad consensus on what that profession even is, much less what table stakes in it are.

cannabis_sam 6y ago
Are you seriously claiming Guido van Rossum was hired for software development/engineering..? I don’t understand the context switching here.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > Are you seriously claiming Guido van Rossum was hired for software development/engineering..? No, nor do I think he was he hired for the other thing I discussed, academic computer science. The post I was responding to made a general comment about "CS graduates" and "our profession"; I was responding to that. Whether that post itself was material to, or merely tangential to, the discussion of GvR's hiring at Microsoft is an argument that, while perhaps interesting to some, was not the focus or concern of my response.
  - cannabis_sam 6y ago
    My post was a response to a specific comment, please don’t take it out of context.

emddudley 6y ago

Because these problems can have some subtleties that are hard to get right in a high-pressure environment. Some interviewers will completely write you off for small mistakes.

cannabis_sam 6y ago
That sounds interesting! Do you have any examples? I would have thought that if you actually needed people to perform under pressure, you would design your test explicitly around that, instead of using “comfort with the whiteboard” as a proxy...

TuringNYC 6y ago

That might be a fair statement for some roles, but what about the second part where you code it up and write the code on a whiteboard w/o running/debugging and have to get it right in 45min?

cannabis_sam 6y ago
I’m not sure I understand..? Do you mean it should be used as an actual speed test?