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> an quickly learn new skills. That's exactly what leetcode tests for I don’t know where people get this idea. Leetcode used to test programming proficiency I
by mikymoothrowa 4y ago
> an quickly learn new skills. That's exactly what leetcode tests for
I don’t know where people get this idea. Leetcode used to test programming proficiency
I feel the only reason companies continue to take leetcode to absurd levels is because (a) they think harder questions would get them better engineers and (b) other companies are doing it
- dijit 4y ago> Leetcode used to test programming proficiency The discussion is exactly this, that leetcode is used to test programming proficiency, but it's an inadequate bar. The parent is postulating that it's a lie; that actually leetcode tests for malleability, and we're getting bent out of shape because we think it's a poor test of coding ability. However it might be a good test of malleability, and that might actually be it's intended purpose, but that's not communicated.
- nowherebeen 4y agoI don't know about malleability, but I know Big Tech uses it to filter down the number of applicants. They get 200 applications in an hour so HR needs a way to pick a few that won't get them sued.
- mikymoothrowa 4y agoUnderstandable when big tech does this. 200 person tech companies are doing the same.
- tlextrait 4y agoNot quite but almost: Leetcode doesn't evaluate programming proficiency but ability to solve complex and abstract problems using programming. Doing so doesn't require being good at programming but being good at solving problems, and doing so using a programming language. It doesn't require knowing a language well, but only well enough to solve the problem.
- mikymoothrowa 4y ago> It doesn't require knowing a language well, but only well enough to solve the problem. I guess that really depends on the language. IMHO, if you can solve a reasonably complex problem using a language, you know that language.
- pxx 4y agoThis doesn't seem right at all. I can kludge together a solution to an arbitrarily complex problem in any language, but that doesn't mean I'm writing it in a way that can be extended and developed upon by other people. The latter is also what takes up the majority of development time.
- lupire 4y agoA one-day interview can't test you on things that take up the majority of your career time.
- Floegipoky 4y agoI am on the interview team for the company I work for and I wrote what some consider to be our canonical python solution (fastest and simplest) for one of the problems we use. I had to look up the syntax for a "for loop" because I hadn't written python since my first year at university. To me, being able to stitch together simple concepts present in almost all mainstream programming languages doesn't mean I know python, it means I know how dynamic programming works. I don't know the python ecosystem (history, present, or future), know the standard library, know what idiomatic code looks like, deeply understand what makes the language unique, have the mindset of a python programmer, etc. Maybe I just have a high threshold for feeling like I "know" a language.
- b20000 4y agoi did a leetcode interview in c++ and didn’t remember some syntactic details of lambdas and that was the end of it. please stop with this nonsense that interviewers are understanding and that you can look things up or that you will be able to take your time to produce the optimal solution to a problem.
- mountainriver 4y agoAs I understand it, programming is only part of it, a big part is just seeing if you will study hard to learn meaningless stuff
- the_only_law 4y agoIf they’re so interested I have a massive catalog of things that can fulfill such a requirement.