4 ms·

the way I see the problem is company say they want an expert in X where x might be 1- writing driver and OS internal in assembly/ ANSI C 2- writing video game p

by skyde 6y ago

the way I see the problem is company say they want an expert in X where x might be 1- writing driver and OS internal in assembly/ ANSI C 2- writing video game physic engine in c++/CUDA 3- writing machine learning model in Python/R but the interview is always something like 1- reverse a (linked list.tree) using your language of choice 2- write code to solve the N-queen problem ... Basically they ask bad question to evaluate data structure knowledge and ability to solve riddle. But they ask 0 question related to the specific expertise required for the role they are trying to fill.

cmollis 6y ago
exactly.. this is so stupid in my opinion and just signals another 'we only hire the best.. ya know, like google'.. implementing breadth-first-search, or a linked-list insert during a coding interview is quite possibly the most ridiculous way to determine if a potential hire will be able be productive at your company.. which, as we all know, will be writing spring boot services that return json.
- cmollis 6y ago
  now, I should also say that if your company builds libraries that actually implement these algorithms in a better, stronger, faster way, then of course by all means ask away. And, I also get that understanding what I linked list, hash map, trie, graph, etc.. is an important signal for interviewers that you've got some computer 'science' background. However, more relevant question might be why they might be used.. or the algorithmic complexity of one over the other (since in practice we're just going to use a collection library anyway). I might argue that another (equally irrelevant) signal that you've studied computer science would be ask what the integral of 1/x is.
  - skyde 6y ago
    I got asked those kind of question "integral of 1/x" during interview with big tech (Microsoft) and Wallstreet (Morgan stanley, goldman sach). But to be fair at Wallstreet you are likely to work with quants and have to do integral :)

by skyde 6y ago

cmollis 6y ago

exactly.. this is so stupid in my opinion and just signals another 'we only hire the best.. ya know, like google'.. implementing breadth-first-search, or a linked-list insert during a coding interview is quite possibly the most ridiculous way to determine if a potential hire will be able be productive at your company.. which, as we all know, will be writing spring boot services that return json.

cmollis 6y ago
now, I should also say that if your company builds libraries that actually implement these algorithms in a better, stronger, faster way, then of course by all means ask away. And, I also get that understanding what I linked list, hash map, trie, graph, etc.. is an important signal for interviewers that you've got some computer 'science' background. However, more relevant question might be why they might be used.. or the algorithmic complexity of one over the other (since in practice we're just going to use a collection library anyway). I might argue that another (equally irrelevant) signal that you've studied computer science would be ask what the integral of 1/x is.
- skyde 6y ago
  I got asked those kind of question "integral of 1/x" during interview with big tech (Microsoft) and Wallstreet (Morgan stanley, goldman sach). But to be fair at Wallstreet you are likely to work with quants and have to do integral :)