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You know how some people think that fizzbuzz is useless, and how no one ever uses fizzbuzz in real life? if you google it, you'll read things like "I have never
by Kim_Bruning 5y ago
You know how some people think that fizzbuzz is useless, and how no one ever uses fizzbuzz in real life? if you google it, you'll read things like "I have never needed to write fizzbuzz in production in my entire career!" or words to that effect.
Of course, fizzbuzz is just checking if you grok some super basic programming concepts like logic, branching, and iteration.
So what if you want to know if someone knows a little bit _more_ than just the basics?
It's the exact same story.
The ability to be able to work with algorithms and puzzle your way out of a problem is kind of important when you're doing some sorts of programming, especially when you need code that scales well (up OR down).
If you're really bad at it, you might write pessimal code that even overheats your regular laptop; but fortunately most people aren't quite that bad. ;-)
- hocuspocus 5y ago> So what if you want to know if someone knows a little bit _more_ than just the basics? It's the exact same story. > The ability to be able to work with algorithms and puzzle your way out of a problem is kind of important when you're doing some sorts of programming, especially when you need code that scales well (up OR down). The main issue is that many companies don't do that. They ask leetcode questions because Google does it. But they expect you to have seen the problem earlier and memorized the solution.
- tmule 5y agoGoogle doesn’t ask Leetcode questions. The directionality runs the other way.
- hocuspocus 5y agoGoogle is very good at not asking these questions verbatim, but they're only variations of the same patterns. It's not like there are hundreds of unique concepts you can cover over the length of a typical interview slot. Anyway my point still stands. Big companies ask FizzBuzz++ because they want to see how you solve it, if you're able to communicate and write clean code. But unfortunately a lot of smaller ones don't invest the time that is necessary to have a good and consistent interview process. And more often than not, being able to regurgitate the solution to a problem you've already seen will definitely score you more points.
- tmule 5y agoIt’s Leetcode that borrows (steals?) from Google or FB or other big tech companies. Their lack of respect for IP + candidates not adhering to NDAs has brought us to this sorry state. But then .. better it all be public, than privy solely to a handful of well-networked individuals.
- hocuspocus 5y agoI don't think it matters that much. Before Leetcode there were books like Cracking the Code Interview. It's not like Google owns dynamic programming interview questions. Some companies with a similar hiring bar ask Leetcode questions verbatim. What matters is how you do it and what you expect from candidates.
- jaredsohn 5y agoCracking the Coding Interview is only from 2008. Before that I remember talking about interview questions with others at college. Also joelonsoftware.com (from Joel Spolsky who later was a cofounder of Stackoverflow) had a sister site called techinterview.org and I'm sure there were other sites.