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Didn't the guy who made Homebrew fail his interview at Google because he couldn't invert a binary tree? That's a guy who has built a popular product in the wild

Didn't the guy who made Homebrew fail his interview at Google because he couldn't invert a binary tree? That's a guy who has built a popular product in the wild and can clearly code but failed because of the leetcode barrier at all IC levels.

sdfghswe 3y ago
You sound like you're trying to make a point. Make a point.
- 121789 3y ago
  I agree. Every hiring process will have false negatives. Pointing out every one doesn’t invalidate the effectiveness of the process
  - thejazzman 3y ago
    Effective for whom? And at doing what? SV is full of mediocre engineers; so it fails at guaranteeing you got yourself a star. And I don't think anyone needs more anecdotes to think great candidates lose for arbitrary/subjective/misunderstanding/random reasons -- I'm 15y into my career with a degree from CMU; I am treated like royalty everywhere I work ... and yet I still absolutely dread, hate and repeatedly have bad experiences interviewing for jobs. I've considered switching careers numerous times because of the emotional distress I go through just interviewing. And that's before we even talk about the insane amount of time every prospective employer demands of you!
    - MichaelZuo 3y ago
      Who's forcing you to stay in SV? If it's making you so stressed out as you claim, then the obvious step, to me, would be a change of scenery.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
      > insane amount of time every prospective employer demands of you I have worked an average of 40-hour/week jobs for my entire 30-year career. What's this "demand" nonsense?
      - brookside 3y ago
        I believe parent is talking about time demands of the interview process, not the job.
        HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
        ah!
devoutsalsa 3y ago
If you can’t invert a binary tree, how can I trust you to change my website’s favicon?!
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  You would be surprised how hard it would be to invert a binary tree, or really just what the question is asking for, if you didn't at least study up on the concept in the last decade. It is conventional enough to sound mundane, but how often are we inverting binary trees in practice?
  - monocasa 3y ago
    It came out that by inverting a binary tree just meant swapping the left and right children of all nodes of the tree. It's pretty much 'can you iterate through a tree?' which comes up a surprising amount.
    - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
      Sure, but try coming up with that without even remembering what invert meant (it isn't a word that is commonly used in practice outside of CS education and l00tcode). Most of the problem in l00tcode question is just figuring out what is being asked for, not in doing the ask. That's why studying and understanding lots of l00tcode problems as prep is very effective (even if you haven't seen the problem, the problem is probably adjacent and you can understand it more quickly during the interview).
      - monocasa 3y ago
        'Invert' is a pretty common word.
        seanmcdirmid 3y ago
        Yes, but the common slang it is used for isn't the meaning we are using for l00tcode questions.
TrevorAustin 3y ago
To be fair, Homebrew is great product design, but actually pretty janky software engineering. Anyone who's had it wreck their PATH a couple of times isn't going to be an automatic yes vote on a technical screen.
- hotnfresh 3y ago
  As if average FAANG quality in customer-facing software is better. If that’s the hang-up on hiring him, they need to get the log out of their own eyes first, because shifting to the quality level of Homebrew would be a big improvement for a whole lot of their software.
- thereisnojesus 3y ago
  Yes, we are aware companies hire privileged losers instead of skilled employees
- dehrmann 3y ago
  Long ago, I switched to MacPorts because its path and directory story is better, and I didn't find myself having to run chown to fix things.
ahoka 3y ago
But inverting a binary tree is trivial. It’s not like finding the shortest path in a graph, or something similar that requires recalling an algorithm on the spot. Go and look at the actual problem if you don’t believe me.
nonameiguess 3y ago
It's amusing the answers so far are mostly all "well this is an easy question and he should have gotten it." I actually agree with that, but even so, he got rejected by Google but did get a job at Apple, which is what this article is about, and that seems like a far more relevant fact to me.

sdfghswe 3y ago

You sound like you're trying to make a point. Make a point.

121789 3y ago
I agree. Every hiring process will have false negatives. Pointing out every one doesn’t invalidate the effectiveness of the process
- thejazzman 3y ago
  Effective for whom? And at doing what? SV is full of mediocre engineers; so it fails at guaranteeing you got yourself a star. And I don't think anyone needs more anecdotes to think great candidates lose for arbitrary/subjective/misunderstanding/random reasons -- I'm 15y into my career with a degree from CMU; I am treated like royalty everywhere I work ... and yet I still absolutely dread, hate and repeatedly have bad experiences interviewing for jobs. I've considered switching careers numerous times because of the emotional distress I go through just interviewing. And that's before we even talk about the insane amount of time every prospective employer demands of you!
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
    Who's forcing you to stay in SV? If it's making you so stressed out as you claim, then the obvious step, to me, would be a change of scenery.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
    > insane amount of time every prospective employer demands of you I have worked an average of 40-hour/week jobs for my entire 30-year career. What's this "demand" nonsense?
    - brookside 3y ago
      I believe parent is talking about time demands of the interview process, not the job.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
        ah!

devoutsalsa 3y ago

If you can’t invert a binary tree, how can I trust you to change my website’s favicon?!

seanmcdirmid 3y ago
You would be surprised how hard it would be to invert a binary tree, or really just what the question is asking for, if you didn't at least study up on the concept in the last decade. It is conventional enough to sound mundane, but how often are we inverting binary trees in practice?
- monocasa 3y ago
  It came out that by inverting a binary tree just meant swapping the left and right children of all nodes of the tree. It's pretty much 'can you iterate through a tree?' which comes up a surprising amount.
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    Sure, but try coming up with that without even remembering what invert meant (it isn't a word that is commonly used in practice outside of CS education and l00tcode). Most of the problem in l00tcode question is just figuring out what is being asked for, not in doing the ask. That's why studying and understanding lots of l00tcode problems as prep is very effective (even if you haven't seen the problem, the problem is probably adjacent and you can understand it more quickly during the interview).
    - monocasa 3y ago
      'Invert' is a pretty common word.
      - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
        Yes, but the common slang it is used for isn't the meaning we are using for l00tcode questions.

TrevorAustin 3y ago

To be fair, Homebrew is great product design, but actually pretty janky software engineering. Anyone who's had it wreck their PATH a couple of times isn't going to be an automatic yes vote on a technical screen.

hotnfresh 3y ago
As if average FAANG quality in customer-facing software is better. If that’s the hang-up on hiring him, they need to get the log out of their own eyes first, because shifting to the quality level of Homebrew would be a big improvement for a whole lot of their software.
thereisnojesus 3y ago
Yes, we are aware companies hire privileged losers instead of skilled employees
dehrmann 3y ago
Long ago, I switched to MacPorts because its path and directory story is better, and I didn't find myself having to run chown to fix things.

ahoka 3y ago

But inverting a binary tree is trivial. It’s not like finding the shortest path in a graph, or something similar that requires recalling an algorithm on the spot. Go and look at the actual problem if you don’t believe me.

nonameiguess 3y ago

It's amusing the answers so far are mostly all "well this is an easy question and he should have gotten it." I actually agree with that, but even so, he got rejected by Google but did get a job at Apple, which is what this article is about, and that seems like a far more relevant fact to me.