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Doing a linked list is my primary question for coding interviews. It is something I think everyone has seen or done in school so should be pretty easy. It is a

Doing a linked list is my primary question for coding interviews. It is something I think everyone has seen or done in school so should be pretty easy. It is also small enough that it can be explained during an interview if they don't know. A linked list can be programmed in any modern language that has references. It lets me get some insight into how the person thinks and works through problems. Primary insights I am looking at: How does the candidate approach the problem as stated? Do they ask any clarifying questions? Can they explain the code they have written? Did they listen to what I asked for? Some people who have been studying will just start typing what they have memorized. Are they doing anything interesting with the language they have chosen? Are they able to answer questions about their choices? Most of the time people will get through some kind of add method, and a delete method. Usually by that time I have enough information to move past that question. Doing puzzles like reverse the list don't really add any more information and I have stopped asking that even if there is time.

nicoburns 6y ago
> It is something I think everyone has seen or done in school so should be pretty easy Only if they studied CS! A lot of good devs didn't. However, as you're willing to explain the concept during the interview, I think your usage is reasonable.
tchalla 6y ago
> It is something I think everyone has seen or done in school so should be pretty easy. Here are some things everyone has seen or done in school : proofs on in theorems on geometry, integral of an obscure function. I am pretty sure it should be "easy" to answer them in an interview.
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  One of the items under discussion is appropriate to the group under discussion (programmers), the other is not. For the most part we don't care if programmers can integrate functions or prove theorems, we do care if they can program. Whether linked list questions are appropriate or not is another matter, but at least they're in the correct domain.
  - tchalla 6y ago
    > Whether linked list questions are appropriate or not is another matter, but at least they're in the correct domain. It is not just "another" matter, it is THE matter. The correct domain is a vast space. The OP wants the interviewee to go through something they know instead of knowing more about the interviewee. It's lazy interviewing - it makes no attempt to understand the person's "appropriate" skills. If you care if they can program, you won't ask a LinkedList question. For the most part, neither the interviewer nor the interview would ever program a LinkedList apart from a few courses in university.
    - Jtsummers 6y ago
      > For the most part, neither the interviewer nor the interview would ever program a LinkedList apart from a few courses in university. And many non-professional athletes going out for a tryout will be put into artificial situations as well instead of being placed on the team and taken to an actual competition for their trial, it doesn't mean that tryouts are fundamentally flawed. Linked list questions (or other data structure/algorithm questions) are synthetic questions used to gauge competence of individuals because we usually don't get the option to hire someone for a month and try them out in a real world scenario. If they're the sum of the interview, then they're moronic; if they're a portion of the interview, then they're (arguably) reasonable. Certainly more reasonable than the non-programming domain topics you listed.
      - tchalla 6y ago
        > And many non-professional athletes going out for a tryout will be put into artificial situations as well instead of being placed on the team and taken to an actual competition for their trial, it doesn't mean that tryouts are fundamentally flawed. Athletes play games that are universally timed, programmers don't. Besides sportsmen and athletes are regularly tried out in "lower" games before they graduate to a "higher" level. Linked List questions select for university education and memorising problems, not programming. You are making a false binary of "whiteboard or hire for 1 month" which once gain shows laziness as an interviewer. If you are so proficient in your field, you should be able to gauge a competence of an individual from their past work. It shows more about the interviewr that they resort to some cookie-cutter university course questions to decide competence.

nicoburns 6y ago

> It is something I think everyone has seen or done in school so should be pretty easy Only if they studied CS! A lot of good devs didn't. However, as you're willing to explain the concept during the interview, I think your usage is reasonable.

tchalla 6y ago

> It is something I think everyone has seen or done in school so should be pretty easy. Here are some things everyone has seen or done in school : proofs on in theorems on geometry, integral of an obscure function. I am pretty sure it should be "easy" to answer them in an interview.

Jtsummers 6y ago
One of the items under discussion is appropriate to the group under discussion (programmers), the other is not. For the most part we don't care if programmers can integrate functions or prove theorems, we do care if they can program. Whether linked list questions are appropriate or not is another matter, but at least they're in the correct domain.
- tchalla 6y ago
  > Whether linked list questions are appropriate or not is another matter, but at least they're in the correct domain. It is not just "another" matter, it is THE matter. The correct domain is a vast space. The OP wants the interviewee to go through something they know instead of knowing more about the interviewee. It's lazy interviewing - it makes no attempt to understand the person's "appropriate" skills. If you care if they can program, you won't ask a LinkedList question. For the most part, neither the interviewer nor the interview would ever program a LinkedList apart from a few courses in university.
  - Jtsummers 6y ago
    > For the most part, neither the interviewer nor the interview would ever program a LinkedList apart from a few courses in university. And many non-professional athletes going out for a tryout will be put into artificial situations as well instead of being placed on the team and taken to an actual competition for their trial, it doesn't mean that tryouts are fundamentally flawed. Linked list questions (or other data structure/algorithm questions) are synthetic questions used to gauge competence of individuals because we usually don't get the option to hire someone for a month and try them out in a real world scenario. If they're the sum of the interview, then they're moronic; if they're a portion of the interview, then they're (arguably) reasonable. Certainly more reasonable than the non-programming domain topics you listed.
    - tchalla 6y ago
      > And many non-professional athletes going out for a tryout will be put into artificial situations as well instead of being placed on the team and taken to an actual competition for their trial, it doesn't mean that tryouts are fundamentally flawed. Athletes play games that are universally timed, programmers don't. Besides sportsmen and athletes are regularly tried out in "lower" games before they graduate to a "higher" level. Linked List questions select for university education and memorising problems, not programming. You are making a false binary of "whiteboard or hire for 1 month" which once gain shows laziness as an interviewer. If you are so proficient in your field, you should be able to gauge a competence of an individual from their past work. It shows more about the interviewr that they resort to some cookie-cutter university course questions to decide competence.