4 ms·

When you say "memorize" what do you mean? You mean that they remember common patterns to solve problems? Or they memorize questions verbatim?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ldjkfkdsjnv 3y ago
People are going on leetcode.com, they find the company they are interviewing for, they remove all questions more than a year or two old, then they sort by frequency. They start memorizing the most frequent questions first. Then they pass the interview. There are other forums with question banks, but I wont get into that
michaelt 3y ago
For example, if asked "how would you detect a cycle in a linked list?" you might memorise "Tortoise and hare algorithm, two pointers one slow and one fast, fast overtaking slow indicates the presence of a cycle" A person with a deep passion for algorithms might be tempted to try to solve it themselves before checking the answer - which can be a time consuming business. Time your competitors have used to memorised the answers to 25 more questions. ldjkfkdsjnv has exaggerated a bit, to be provocative - but I've certainly had interviewers ask me questions that stumped the greatest minds in computer science for 25+ years; I don't know what they were expecting if not memorisation.
- paulddraper 3y ago
  That's a funny example, because once in an interview I had exactly that question and the week before I saw tortoise and hair. But that wasn't FAANG that's pretty exceptional.... Most stuff is DFS, memorization, etc... Things that are good principles and don't have "this one weird trick"
stale2002 3y ago
Memorizing questions verbatim means that you will often get questions that require only a single line change in your solution. Furthermore, if you have a memorized solution, you can spit that out in 5 minutes, and then spend the next 30 minutes trying to figure out the slight change that you need to do to make it work for the minor change that was made. Speed matters. And having stuff memorized makes everything else easier.
- nsxwolf 3y ago
  Speed matters. So what if you just can't be fast? What if you have dyslexia? Then what are you supposed to do?
  - stale2002 3y ago
    > So what if you just can't be fast? Then I guess you won't be very good at interviewing. > Then what are you supposed to do? Get better or give up. Your choice.
    - nsxwolf 3y ago
      Oh cool. So the ADA doesn't apply to this industry huh.
      - stale2002 3y ago
        It actually does apply. You'd have to request reasonable accommodations if you have a provable and medically documented disorder. But also it would depend. A company is allowed to not hire someone if the person is not able to do the work. A company is only required to give reasonable accommodations.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

ldjkfkdsjnv 3y ago

People are going on leetcode.com, they find the company they are interviewing for, they remove all questions more than a year or two old, then they sort by frequency. They start memorizing the most frequent questions first. Then they pass the interview. There are other forums with question banks, but I wont get into that

michaelt 3y ago

For example, if asked "how would you detect a cycle in a linked list?" you might memorise "Tortoise and hare algorithm, two pointers one slow and one fast, fast overtaking slow indicates the presence of a cycle" A person with a deep passion for algorithms might be tempted to try to solve it themselves before checking the answer - which can be a time consuming business. Time your competitors have used to memorised the answers to 25 more questions. ldjkfkdsjnv has exaggerated a bit, to be provocative - but I've certainly had interviewers ask me questions that stumped the greatest minds in computer science for 25+ years; I don't know what they were expecting if not memorisation.

paulddraper 3y ago
That's a funny example, because once in an interview I had exactly that question and the week before I saw tortoise and hair. But that wasn't FAANG that's pretty exceptional.... Most stuff is DFS, memorization, etc... Things that are good principles and don't have "this one weird trick"

stale2002 3y ago

Memorizing questions verbatim means that you will often get questions that require only a single line change in your solution. Furthermore, if you have a memorized solution, you can spit that out in 5 minutes, and then spend the next 30 minutes trying to figure out the slight change that you need to do to make it work for the minor change that was made. Speed matters. And having stuff memorized makes everything else easier.

nsxwolf 3y ago
Speed matters. So what if you just can't be fast? What if you have dyslexia? Then what are you supposed to do?
- stale2002 3y ago
  > So what if you just can't be fast? Then I guess you won't be very good at interviewing. > Then what are you supposed to do? Get better or give up. Your choice.
  - nsxwolf 3y ago
    Oh cool. So the ADA doesn't apply to this industry huh.
    - stale2002 3y ago
      It actually does apply. You'd have to request reasonable accommodations if you have a provable and medically documented disorder. But also it would depend. A company is allowed to not hire someone if the person is not able to do the work. A company is only required to give reasonable accommodations.