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You think LeetCode problems require novel solutions? It's the exact opposite: they're great for new grads who just spent 4+ years cramming for exams.

by skeeter2020 4y ago

EdwardDiego 4y ago
Bingo. I was asked recently to find the maximum subarray of an array, in a live coding exercise. In TypeScript. So, JS, but with type annotations. The interviewer themself said "this is probably more aimed at someone who just graduated." It was for a senior data engineering role, where the odds of me implementing classic dynamic programming problems on the regular are slim to none. They made me an offer anyway, but I just wonder what value they found in that. Oh, he knows about Big O? He's heard of memoisation? They were big on FP, apparently. But not Scala, there was too much FP in that for them, hence the TypeScript. Mind you my first ever rejection was for a Python role back in 2011 when Python was still very niche in my country, and while I had a portfolio of, imo, pretty decent Python code, they weren't interested because I didn't have a degree, and people without degrees write unstructured code. Which is a very long way of saying, every interview process ultimately devolves into people hiring people like them.
- zinclozenge 4y ago
  I'd hire you on the basis that you know that it's memoization and not memorization.
kristopolous 4y ago
In that way it also acts as a legal form of ageism.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  Or, perhaps more accurately, a layer of plausible deniability to cover illegal age discrimination.
0x20cowboy 4y ago
I was once asked "how do you sort a list of integers?" - the question was so ill defined that I thought it was a joke (in a database?, how long is the list?, in a flat file?, memory only?, on an embedded system?, a dataset in spark? ...). Thinking, ok, this must be an ice breaking joke I responded, "I don't know, how _do you_ sort a list of integers?". In a condescending tone they responded "are you even a programmer?". At the time, I had been in the game for more than 10 years. I am really not sure how one could successfully build several companies and have shipped several products without knowing "how to sort a list of integers". Trying to find a good place to grow your career is difficult on many levels, but if you find leetcode questions silly, you might be too advanced for entry level jobs. ...and you probably don't want to work there.

You think LeetCode problems require novel solutions? It's the exact opposite: they're great for new grads who just spent 4+ years cramming for exams.

EdwardDiego 4y ago

Bingo. I was asked recently to find the maximum subarray of an array, in a live coding exercise. In TypeScript. So, JS, but with type annotations. The interviewer themself said "this is probably more aimed at someone who just graduated." It was for a senior data engineering role, where the odds of me implementing classic dynamic programming problems on the regular are slim to none. They made me an offer anyway, but I just wonder what value they found in that. Oh, he knows about Big O? He's heard of memoisation? They were big on FP, apparently. But not Scala, there was too much FP in that for them, hence the TypeScript. Mind you my first ever rejection was for a Python role back in 2011 when Python was still very niche in my country, and while I had a portfolio of, imo, pretty decent Python code, they weren't interested because I didn't have a degree, and people without degrees write unstructured code. Which is a very long way of saying, every interview process ultimately devolves into people hiring people like them.

zinclozenge 4y ago
I'd hire you on the basis that you know that it's memoization and not memorization.

kristopolous 4y ago

In that way it also acts as a legal form of ageism.

dragonwriter 4y ago
Or, perhaps more accurately, a layer of plausible deniability to cover illegal age discrimination.

0x20cowboy 4y ago

I was once asked "how do you sort a list of integers?" - the question was so ill defined that I thought it was a joke (in a database?, how long is the list?, in a flat file?, memory only?, on an embedded system?, a dataset in spark? ...). Thinking, ok, this must be an ice breaking joke I responded, "I don't know, how _do you_ sort a list of integers?". In a condescending tone they responded "are you even a programmer?". At the time, I had been in the game for more than 10 years. I am really not sure how one could successfully build several companies and have shipped several products without knowing "how to sort a list of integers". Trying to find a good place to grow your career is difficult on many levels, but if you find leetcode questions silly, you might be too advanced for entry level jobs. ...and you probably don't want to work there.