This simply doesn't work without grinding, and grinding happens to be sufficient (whereas understanding is not). You aren't just supposed to solve a problem (a

This simply doesn't work without grinding, and grinding happens to be sufficient (whereas understanding is not). You aren't just supposed to solve a problem (and can't think back to your college years, pull out your copy of CLRS, or whatever). You are supposed to rapidly pattern-match to a specific problem type, and implement. You only have 20-30 minutes (because the rest of the hour gets eaten up by small talk) and this includes testing. Anyone who thinks they can do this with just their knowledge of algorithms without any grinding is in for a shock.