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Your comment inspired me to ask a question I've had for a while. My background is not CS, it's computer engineering. So I didn't have any education in the fancy

by astrea 6y ago

Your comment inspired me to ask a question I've had for a while. My background is not CS, it's computer engineering. So I didn't have any education in the fancy algorithms that you'll find in these interviews. Is that expected or did I miss something?

121789 6y ago
I have the same background and I think you either missed something, or your degree was much more EE focused. I had the required data structures + algorithms classes as part of my computer engineering curriculum
- snerbles 6y ago
  A lot of CE degrees are EE with just the barest veneer of software to meet ABET requirements. Mine had data structures and software engineering as CE-specific requirements (along with a dash of microarchitecture and HDL/FPGA stuff), the CS algorithms course was an elective that obviously gave priority to CS majors. Beyond that, we had a department head that really only cared about shoving as many EEs as possible into the PG&E hiring pipeline.
  - imtringued 6y ago
    Compared to software creating a circuit design is a complete nightmare. With software you can get away with a lot of shady things but in EE every tiny detail can matter. You can do very simple PCBs as a hobbyist but it won't even compare to what the professionals are capable of doing. In software we have hobbyists creating extremely important libraries that are used by millions of people.
emddudley 6y ago
I also went to school for CE and although we did have some algorithmic and data structures classes, I don't think they were as in-depth as the CS curriculum. For example, the only time I ever encountered red-black trees was in the context of prepping for software interviews.
- diablerouge 6y ago
  I graduated from a CS program 6 months ago, and encountered red black trees in just one of my courses, so your experience isn't too different I think.
- goldenManatee 6y ago
  And then how often over one’s day-to-day career? It’s farcical.
- dryrunes 6y ago
  I am currently in school for ce and I take the same algorithms courses as cs students, I feel like it is super dependent on school.
drchopchop 6y ago
Depends on how much CS you were exposed to, I guess? Leetcode problems generally involve: DFS/BFS search, memoization, dynamic programming, various types of sorting, hash tables, etc... all baked into annoying edge-case-y problems that are difficult to rapidly solve under a timer when someone's staring at you. Vast experience in compilers, embedded systems, functional languages, graphics, dev ops, or cloud technologies will be of no use. (Perhaps it will be later, if you get to a systems arch interview step.)

by astrea 6y ago

121789 6y ago

I have the same background and I think you either missed something, or your degree was much more EE focused. I had the required data structures + algorithms classes as part of my computer engineering curriculum

snerbles 6y ago
A lot of CE degrees are EE with just the barest veneer of software to meet ABET requirements. Mine had data structures and software engineering as CE-specific requirements (along with a dash of microarchitecture and HDL/FPGA stuff), the CS algorithms course was an elective that obviously gave priority to CS majors. Beyond that, we had a department head that really only cared about shoving as many EEs as possible into the PG&E hiring pipeline.
- imtringued 6y ago
  Compared to software creating a circuit design is a complete nightmare. With software you can get away with a lot of shady things but in EE every tiny detail can matter. You can do very simple PCBs as a hobbyist but it won't even compare to what the professionals are capable of doing. In software we have hobbyists creating extremely important libraries that are used by millions of people.

emddudley 6y ago

I also went to school for CE and although we did have some algorithmic and data structures classes, I don't think they were as in-depth as the CS curriculum. For example, the only time I ever encountered red-black trees was in the context of prepping for software interviews.

diablerouge 6y ago
I graduated from a CS program 6 months ago, and encountered red black trees in just one of my courses, so your experience isn't too different I think.
goldenManatee 6y ago
And then how often over one’s day-to-day career? It’s farcical.
dryrunes 6y ago
I am currently in school for ce and I take the same algorithms courses as cs students, I feel like it is super dependent on school.

drchopchop 6y ago

Depends on how much CS you were exposed to, I guess? Leetcode problems generally involve: DFS/BFS search, memoization, dynamic programming, various types of sorting, hash tables, etc... all baked into annoying edge-case-y problems that are difficult to rapidly solve under a timer when someone's staring at you. Vast experience in compilers, embedded systems, functional languages, graphics, dev ops, or cloud technologies will be of no use. (Perhaps it will be later, if you get to a systems arch interview step.)