3 ms·

Perhaps I’m biased as someone with a better than average sense of algorithms and discrete math, but I think such interview questions have a lot of utility, prov

Perhaps I’m biased as someone with a better than average sense of algorithms and discrete math, but I think such interview questions have a lot of utility, provided the job will require some analysis of algorithms, eg you’re working on the platform, or a solver/optimizer. Obviously it’s pants on head stupid to do that if you want a web dev to make a pretty app, tie frameworks together and liaise with 3rd party integrators. However, I think many employers want the crème of such devs who are also good at algos.

mr_toad 4y ago
> I think many employers want the crème of such devs who are also good at algos I think that many employers don’t have a clue what makes a good dev, in general, or in the positions they’re trying to fill.
manuelabeledo 4y ago
> However, I think many employers want the crème of such devs who are also good at algos. Which is not going to work for the vast majority of devs and jobs. Most devs either don’t care or need to care about algorithms, and the few devs who do, spend most days not using them. This would be akin to asking a civil engineer to build a wooden road bridge. Having the skills is great, but how often is the company going to need them?
- gunfighthacksaw 4y ago
  I am not a civil engineer, but I can imagine a situation where a wooden bridge could be used as a stopgap to pull off a more tricky construction. Maybe not in the 21st century however, and I don’t think your analogy is perfect. It might be more like wanting to hire an architect who is also great at civil eng. The skills definitely synergize and can help prune the architect’s search space of good designs, but such a candidate is probably just going to go for an engi job, and lean on their architecture skills there: for example an algo dev that can do mock-ups.

3 ms·

Perhaps I’m biased as someone with a better than average sense of algorithms and discrete math, but I think such interview questions have a lot of utility, prov

by gunfighthacksaw 4y ago

mr_toad 4y ago
> I think many employers want the crème of such devs who are also good at algos I think that many employers don’t have a clue what makes a good dev, in general, or in the positions they’re trying to fill.
manuelabeledo 4y ago
> However, I think many employers want the crème of such devs who are also good at algos. Which is not going to work for the vast majority of devs and jobs. Most devs either don’t care or need to care about algorithms, and the few devs who do, spend most days not using them. This would be akin to asking a civil engineer to build a wooden road bridge. Having the skills is great, but how often is the company going to need them?
- gunfighthacksaw 4y ago
  I am not a civil engineer, but I can imagine a situation where a wooden bridge could be used as a stopgap to pull off a more tricky construction. Maybe not in the 21st century however, and I don’t think your analogy is perfect. It might be more like wanting to hire an architect who is also great at civil eng. The skills definitely synergize and can help prune the architect’s search space of good designs, but such a candidate is probably just going to go for an engi job, and lean on their architecture skills there: for example an algo dev that can do mock-ups.