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Not OP, but we often include these two in our interviews: 1. Write code that will find the second largest item in an array on ints. 2. Write SQL that selects
by neilsimp1 5y ago
Not OP, but we often include these two in our interviews:
1. Write code that will find the second largest item in an array on ints.
2. Write SQL that selects the second highest number from a DB table.
I'm floored how few candidates can do these. Many end up giving up or fiddling for 10 minutes before giving something like `SELECT table WHERE 2`.
- deckard1 5y agowouldn't be surprised people miss the SQL question. Full stack devs are rather rare nowadays, and it's a bit obscure SQL trivia considering the answer is dependent on which SQL db you're using.
- throwawaygh 5y agoModulo syntax/keywords, I think the following query would work in any modern dialect: SELECT num FROM (SELECT num FROM nums ORDER BY num DESC LIMIT 2) ORDER BY num ASC LIMIT 1; which is actually nearly identical to the simplest Python solution in terms of the computation that's specified: lambda xs: None if len(xs) == 0 else sorted(xs)[-2:][0] I think the reason the question is tricky for some is because they either: 1) haven't used SQL in a long time and forgot all the syntax, or else 2) don't really "grok" SQL as a model of computation (as opposed to e.g. a data structuring language or something like that). But both of those seem like good reasons to disqualify someone from a full stack role?