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My big problem with 'Know why not (just) what' is that, as demonstrated in the responses here, the interviewers typically don't, and if you try it will sometime
by nyrikki 3y ago
My big problem with 'Know why not (just) what' is that, as demonstrated in the responses here, the interviewers typically don't, and if you try it will sometimes result in them failing you.
At a Google interview I tried to explain that in big-O notation the sequence can only exceed the bound in a finite prefix of the sequence.
Formally:
O(g(n)) = { f(n): there exist positive constants c and n_0 such that 0 ≤ f(n) ≤ cg(n) for all n ≥ n_0 }
I was actually made the interviewer mad with that when he asked if there was any reason to use non-recursive search algorithms and I was providing justification.
I still got an offer but turned it down because I need an environment where I can learn where my blind spots are and return in kind with the team.
- Hunpeter 3y agoAre you SimonDev? ;) https://youtube.com/watch?v=gCzOhZ_LUps https://youtube.com/watch?v=gCzOhZ_LUps
- nyrikki 3y agoNo, never seen that channel before but if he interviewed at the Fremont campus in Seattle we probably had the same interviewer or same internal guidelines? It looks like he took that job, I didn't.
- nyrikki 3y agoOn reflection I am sure the fact that both he and I had backgrounds with solving performance problems, forcing us to dig into the details of big-O is why we had similar experiences. Mix with what is probably some standard questions inside Google and it illustrates the problem I was thinking about. That is one of the better videos I have seen on the topic, so thanks for sharing it.
- layer8 3y agoYou describe how it successfully prevented you ending up in the wrong environment, so I don’t understand why you have a problem with it.
- nyrikki 3y agoThe problem is that I hold back now, and I also have to waste time interviewing people to make sure it is clear I would love to learn from the candidate when conducting interviews. The trivia game without context of assumptions and constraints is problematic for everyone.