4 ms·
A cache is such a red flag when I'm doing a system design interview. I ask people to design a system but the system itself is very write heavy. Like 50 writes
by Plasmoid 4y ago
A cache is such a red flag when I'm doing a system design interview.
I ask people to design a system but the system itself is very write heavy. Like 50 writes per read imbalanced. People will often suggest a cache because it's in the standard interview prep but not actually think about why they need it. They just go right to "I need a cache somewhere".
- dilyevsky 4y agoOk if not cache then it must be hashtable?
- rippercushions 4y agoTo crack any IT interview, just breadth-first search the hashtable in a dictionary and you're golden.
- sophonX 4y agolol, i don't get it.
- quadrifoliate 4y ago> I ask people to design a system but the system itself is very write heavy. Like 50 writes per read imbalanced. People will often suggest a cache because it's in the standard interview prep but not actually think about why they need it. I mean, it's a cool thought process to go "Ooh, maybe I can store up repeated things so I don't need to repeat an expensive access process often!" It's a byproduct of modern computing hardware that we frequently have the luxury of not thinking about caching very often. I don't think you should punish people for considering a cache. Write caching is a thing, it might just not be applicable for the system you're considering.
- paxys 4y agoWell yeah, if you can say all this in the interview then you will be fine. 90% of candidates will instead read "add cache to improve performance" in their interview prep guide and repeat it verbatim.