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> We don't realize something important - Leetcode is a competitive programming platform at its core, not an interview platform. Yet, we fall into the trap of th
by nirui 5y ago
> We don't realize something important - Leetcode is a competitive programming platform at its core, not an interview platform. Yet, we fall into the trap of thinking it's an educational website.
There is a word circling China's Internet call "内卷", which can be translated directly to Involution, but on the ground it actually means "Over competition" or "Doing zero-sum competition". People trying to climb over the others while preventing others from climb over them, so they created many arbitrary obstacles to block others.
Keep in mind that, in Chinese society, 35 years old is equals to 70 years old (In many places, you cannot even get a gov job if you are over 35). Failing a competition can be really, life-changingly costly.
So, it is rather a "standard practice" for Chinese companies to keep throwing LeetCode questions to the interviewee during a job interview (, after all, many of those questions are marked by LeetCode as "Interview Questions"). This method creates a lot of benefits for the interviewer not only for the interview, but also for later negotiations.
Funny thing is, even though the top dogs in China got the best talented engineers in the entire nation, their public-facing products are still nothing but trash (or even fruaddy). And as for those engineers, many of them has their own big dreams, but they cannot realize it because the market is a highly restricted blood sea.
- Mandatum 5y agoCan anyone recommend reading materials on this? Not sure where to start but this sounds really interesting.
- ir123 5y agoSeconded, I have always felt icky about zero sum competition and my taking part in it.
- nirui 5y agoHere's somebody's write up in Chinese, which actually is the second Google search results for keyword "内卷": https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/250474212 https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/250474212 If you want to read official tune, here's the article about "内卷" among university students: http://www.xinhuanet.com/2020-11/09/c_1126713666.htm http://www.xinhuanet.com/2020-11/09/c_1126713666.htm Other than those publicly searchable contact. There are many nonpublic/deepnet information, for example, recruitment ads, under table HR rules etc. Here is a recruitment ads from Minhang District government that set age limit (from 18 to 35 years old) for no good reason: http://xxgk.shmh.gov.cn/mhxxgkweb/html/mh_xxgk/ggxxgk_xxgg/2021-04-21/Detail_107398.htm http://xxgk.shmh.gov.cn/mhxxgkweb/html/mh_xxgk/ggxxgk_xxgg/2.... And another one from Zhongwei City: http://www.nxzw.gov.cn/xwzx/tzgg/202103/P020210316319227293996.pdf http://www.nxzw.gov.cn/xwzx/tzgg/202103/P0202103163192272939... Case and point, this problem is widespread and kind common knowledge in China.
- tester34 5y ago>Funny thing is, even though the top dogs in China got the best talented engineers in the entire nation, their public-facing products are still nothing but trash (or even fruaddy). And as for those engineers, many of them has their own big dreams, but they cannot realize it because the market is a highly restricted blood sea. How so? when it comes to scale they easily compete with FAANG, don't they? Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Bytedance...?
- CoolGuySteve 5y agoSomeone just released a product that offloads Chrome to the cloud. Gmail has a very long loading screen. Hangouts was replaced by something like 4 incompatible apps. Android phones are significantly less power efficient than iPhones. YouTube copyright notices are trivial to game. Google’s software over the past 10 years or so leaves a lot to be desired and they’re the worst offender for filtering by leetcode-style interviews.
- xibalba 5y agoThis could be explained by failures of management in addition to or as opposed to the ability of technical individual contributors.
- tweetle_beetle 5y agoI think you and the parent and the grandparent are in agreement.
- sirpunch 5y agoDo you know about the 1point3acrea forum for LeetCode-based interview preparation. I was told by a friend to check it out as they have an extensive set of tips, tricks and general suggestions. Their forums and posts seem to be mostly in Mandarin and Google translate doesn't take you far. So I was hoping to get some Chinese tech person's opinion on 1p3a.
- nirui 5y agoSorry, couldn't help you there. The website is titled "北美最有影响力的华人社区 (The most influential Chinese (online) community in South America)", which is little less than half-earth away from me, so.. However, if an interview is really LeetCode-based, I'd say it's a fair game for the interviewee to do some preparation. In my opinion, the best kind of interview is based on real production needs, the interview question (regardless whether or not it's came from LeetCode) should reflect that.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- osti 5y agoIf you don't possess advanced understanding of Chinese, then don't even think about trying to read it. I came to Canada in my teens and I often have trouble understanding. The forum rules dictate that you write cryptically. But it is incredibly useful if you understand it imo, especially the interview experiences. That's why they can charge like 80usd per month for VIP access..
- honkdaddy 5y agoCan you shed a bit more light on what kind of thing is discussed? Is it similar to Blind in that it's a lot of people talking about how to pragmatically game the interview process?
- whymauri 5y agoIt's a little more on the nose. I just checked the subforum for a random quant firm and it goes something like: * Just interviewed at {firm}, here are the questions: 1. Question One: here are the math and stats subquestions. 2. Question Two: here is the Leetcode question they asked. 3. Question Three: here is another question and my solution. 4. ... Followed by other users posting stuff like "Thank you Landlord {OP}" or "Giving rice {forum clout points} to this Landlord {OP}." Guests without accounts are tourists. I'd say it's like the Leetcode discussion forums except they're leaking actual company interview questions.