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I'm curious if there is any actual advantage to this leetcode style of interview. It is nice that it helps people without degrees get a fair shake, but does it

I'm curious if there is any actual advantage to this leetcode style of interview. It is nice that it helps people without degrees get a fair shake, but does it actually correlate with success in the job? I have always favored the assignment style of interview since it gives me a chance to show that I can actually build a fully functioning piece of software that we can discuss, as opposed to solving a little brainteaser problem.

rakejake 5y ago
My gut feel says there may be a small correlation but not much. I myself credit this leetcode nonsense for being able to land a job in the SW industry despite not having a CS background or any relevant experience at the time. But I found out I had vastly over-estimated my software engineering skills and that proficiency in solving puzzles does not directly translate to building good software. The real advantage in leetcode is that it is well structured and relatively straightforward to scale preparation in. Practice lots of questions from a pre-defined bin of algorithms and data structures and you're good. Assuming the candidate is actually skilled, the real killer in most interviews is if the format of the interview is new or if the interview is some sort of technical discussion and there is impedance mismatch between the interviewer and interviewee. Leetcode has no chance of this happening -> you get the optimal solution or you don't. Ultimately, the problem with leetcode is that it is a very flawed way to scale the interview process that was foisted on us by Google. Interviewing is supposed to be a human process, so any way of "scaling" it is bound to be stupid in one way or the other.
- jcadam 5y ago
  > But I found out I had vastly over-estimated my software engineering skills and that proficiency in solving puzzles does not directly translate to building good software. From the perspective of earning potential, puzzle solving is a better skill to have as a software engineer than actually engineering software.
  - erdos4d 5y ago
    This is a pretty solid sign that something stinks in here.
    - jcadam 5y ago
      Don't mind me, I'm just jaded.
doktorhladnjak 5y ago
The main advantage of these kinds of interviews are they scale when a company needs to hire thousands of engineers a year and can remain relatively consistent at that scale. In theory, it's a pure test of solving a problem using code that is distinct from questions that need knowledge about particular technologies. You can give the same problem to frontend, backend, mobile, etc. candidates. You can ask them for any team. Mac, Linux, Windows: doesn't matter. You can deliver the question over the phone or video chat. No need to clone a repo, send a ZIP file with boilerplate. Interviewers and candidates don't have to fiddle with getting an environment set up because these questions rarely require anything more than standard library on coderpad.
usrbinbash 5y ago
> It is nice that it helps people without degrees get a fair shake Does it actually do that? Let's see who has more time to grind and memorize 200 questions: The single mom working 2 jobs or the kid from a wealthy family?
- erdos4d 5y ago
  I agree with you its still heavily stacked, but I meant that at least there was some shot for her. If degrees got factored in up front, she probably won't even be interviewed vs that rich kid who had tutors and went to Stanford or wherever.
  - usrbinbash 5y ago
    > she probably won't even be interviewed Let's say that she does, which isn't certain btw. (it's still CV-check before interview, that fact didn't go away)...then what? She now has to compete by doing something that actually has little to do with the day-to-day job she's applying for, and is time consuming to prepare for. So, in the limited time the Philly single mom has between her current job(s) and caring for her child(ren), she not only has to teach herself software engineering (aka. the job shes applying for), she now ALSO has to grind coding puzzles, which doesn't really help her getting good at what shes trying to do, and is just for the interview process. Maybe she's actually a natural at programming. Maybe she worked her a** off teaching herself languages, frameworks, tooling, best practices. Maybe she even built some projects to showcase her skills, ready to present to recruiters on her github. Oh but behold: code-puzzle interviews enter the ring, and suddenly, none of that may matter, because to even get to the part of the interview process where she can show how good she is at the actual job shes applying for, she now has to tackle that additional obstacle that she may not be as good at, and certainly didn't have the opportunity to devote as much resources to as the people who were already holding all the advantages before. Let that sink in for a moment. It is now possible for the Philly single mom to be actually better at the job shes applying for, but losing the competition against a worse candidate, who used available resources to prepare well for the code interview, enabled by how predictable the evaluation process became. So no, this method doesn't break down any walls. If anything, it creates new ones.

rakejake 5y ago

My gut feel says there may be a small correlation but not much. I myself credit this leetcode nonsense for being able to land a job in the SW industry despite not having a CS background or any relevant experience at the time. But I found out I had vastly over-estimated my software engineering skills and that proficiency in solving puzzles does not directly translate to building good software. The real advantage in leetcode is that it is well structured and relatively straightforward to scale preparation in. Practice lots of questions from a pre-defined bin of algorithms and data structures and you're good. Assuming the candidate is actually skilled, the real killer in most interviews is if the format of the interview is new or if the interview is some sort of technical discussion and there is impedance mismatch between the interviewer and interviewee. Leetcode has no chance of this happening -> you get the optimal solution or you don't. Ultimately, the problem with leetcode is that it is a very flawed way to scale the interview process that was foisted on us by Google. Interviewing is supposed to be a human process, so any way of "scaling" it is bound to be stupid in one way or the other.

jcadam 5y ago
> But I found out I had vastly over-estimated my software engineering skills and that proficiency in solving puzzles does not directly translate to building good software. From the perspective of earning potential, puzzle solving is a better skill to have as a software engineer than actually engineering software.
- erdos4d 5y ago
  This is a pretty solid sign that something stinks in here.
  - jcadam 5y ago
    Don't mind me, I'm just jaded.

doktorhladnjak 5y ago

The main advantage of these kinds of interviews are they scale when a company needs to hire thousands of engineers a year and can remain relatively consistent at that scale. In theory, it's a pure test of solving a problem using code that is distinct from questions that need knowledge about particular technologies. You can give the same problem to frontend, backend, mobile, etc. candidates. You can ask them for any team. Mac, Linux, Windows: doesn't matter. You can deliver the question over the phone or video chat. No need to clone a repo, send a ZIP file with boilerplate. Interviewers and candidates don't have to fiddle with getting an environment set up because these questions rarely require anything more than standard library on coderpad.

usrbinbash 5y ago

> It is nice that it helps people without degrees get a fair shake Does it actually do that? Let's see who has more time to grind and memorize 200 questions: The single mom working 2 jobs or the kid from a wealthy family?

erdos4d 5y ago
I agree with you its still heavily stacked, but I meant that at least there was some shot for her. If degrees got factored in up front, she probably won't even be interviewed vs that rich kid who had tutors and went to Stanford or wherever.
- usrbinbash 5y ago
  > she probably won't even be interviewed Let's say that she does, which isn't certain btw. (it's still CV-check before interview, that fact didn't go away)...then what? She now has to compete by doing something that actually has little to do with the day-to-day job she's applying for, and is time consuming to prepare for. So, in the limited time the Philly single mom has between her current job(s) and caring for her child(ren), she not only has to teach herself software engineering (aka. the job shes applying for), she now ALSO has to grind coding puzzles, which doesn't really help her getting good at what shes trying to do, and is just for the interview process. Maybe she's actually a natural at programming. Maybe she worked her a** off teaching herself languages, frameworks, tooling, best practices. Maybe she even built some projects to showcase her skills, ready to present to recruiters on her github. Oh but behold: code-puzzle interviews enter the ring, and suddenly, none of that may matter, because to even get to the part of the interview process where she can show how good she is at the actual job shes applying for, she now has to tackle that additional obstacle that she may not be as good at, and certainly didn't have the opportunity to devote as much resources to as the people who were already holding all the advantages before. Let that sink in for a moment. It is now possible for the Philly single mom to be actually better at the job shes applying for, but losing the competition against a worse candidate, who used available resources to prepare well for the code interview, enabled by how predictable the evaluation process became. So no, this method doesn't break down any walls. If anything, it creates new ones.