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What would you say about a programmer who's trying to practice for these sort of challenges? Does it still depend on that point?
by pipeline_peak 5y ago
What would you say about a programmer who's trying to practice for these sort of challenges? Does it still depend on that point?
- PaulHoule 5y agoI think a good programmer in language X knows the standard library of language X like the back of their hand. They know how to look anything up in the manual instantly if it's not in their head. They also are facile with the extended library (e.g. pypi, maven central, npm, ...) Any good programmer also knows algorithms, not just being able to code them out of their head but also when to look them up in an algorithm book. I'm sure I could figure out a good algorithm for making a suffix tree if I had weeks to spend on it, simply knowing that it's possible. I know there are several clever ideas that have to combined to make it scalable for practical use so if I really need a suffix tree algorithm I am going to either use one somebody else wrote or I am going to start with a description of the algorithm from a book on my shelf. From the viewpoint of being prepared for an interview ideally you (a) have it all, and barring that (b) gracefully use what it is you have under pressure.