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Mid-level LC questions are an excellent indicator of problem-solving ability: you need to read the task, understand the requirements, write code, think of edge

Mid-level LC questions are an excellent indicator of problem-solving ability: you need to read the task, understand the requirements, write code, think of edge cases, and potentially optimize, all of this in a time-constrained environment. Flat-out refusal to do any kind of algorithmic interviews is a red flag for scammers and people who thrive on politics instead of building things.

lnsru 2y ago
That’s how LC sells it. And companies buy it. I know enough people, that deliver on very tight deadlines, but can’t do whiteboard coding during stressful interviews. Are these scammers or thrive in politics? Or just stress level is way too high during these interviews with 3 strangers in front of you sitting in unfamiliar office with unfamiliar computer.
abc-1 2y ago
From everything I’ve read, that seems to be the name of the game on anything beyond senior. Try to gather influence. Slap your name on projects that are going well, stay away from projects that are going bad. Say the right keywords that you’re supposed to say. It all seems so tiresome.
- mandeepj 2y ago
  > stay away from projects that are going bad We can’t tag all of them like that! Many times you build reputation by turning failures into successes
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    I imagine principal/staff level isn't quite high enough in many orgs to complete drive a project. You will just be arguing half the time with the director/product owner and forced to make compromises that were making the project fail to begin with
simonbarker87 2y ago
They’re not though because they are totally out of context, there are no real stakes and ultimately you aren’t building anything. If you like solving puzzles then LC is your jam. Puzzles aren’t the same as Problems. The point of a puzzle is to solve the puzzle, in which case my brain just simply isn’t interested. The is no wider end goal. The point of a problem is to solve an issue for a wider context and, untimely improve a system/process/organisation in some way. In which case I’m all in and my brain starts firing on all cylinders. The are no puzzles in work, everything is a problem. LC is nothing but puzzles.
- VirusNewbie 2y ago
  Uh, knowing when to use a hashmap, recursion and a loop is not a puzzle. It's table stakes.
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    No, but "failing" because you didn't use map.emplace instead of map.insert on a test that didn't let you look up documentation and you code in 4 other languages is definitely approaching gatekeeping instead of problem solving. Nevermind that the parameters for STL maps are convuluted to begin with if you're not using them everyday.
  - zelphirkalt 2y ago
    Which is different though from LC being overly specific about how long you solution is allowed to take and how much memory etc.
  - simonbarker87 2y ago
    Of course, and nothing in my comment suggests otherwise. You’ve highlighted tools and techniques that can be used to solve problems and puzzles. I don’t enjoy drawing for the sake of it but I’m happy to draw a sketch for a home layout or woodworking project, both require me to be able to use a pencil, but one I will do well in the other I would fail at. My point is that there are far better ways to test that than LC. My favourite interviews have been “here’s a real problem, placed in context, how would you solve it?” And “here’s an app with a handful of bugs, please fix it”
johnnyanmac 2y ago
>an excellent indicator of problem-solving ability And completely devoid of how this works in the workplace. Instead, you are quizzed in a closed environment on a question you have no context for before the interview (i.e. no time to research the problem space). You are given a hard time limit to solve a problem perfectly with a proctor who can range from being a helpful teammate to a stone wall who just says "this is wrong" or "this isn't the solution I wanted". And if you pass that it says nothing about your ability to perform what was actually on the job description. Who wins here? And the kicker is you may not even get a leetcode question in my domain to begin with. So all that trivia study could be wasted and you fail on some deep C++ deep dive or math questions or any other number of tooling questions. every company is different and they all treat these "problem solving" like we're still in high school and can "cheat" the answer.

lnsru 2y ago

That’s how LC sells it. And companies buy it. I know enough people, that deliver on very tight deadlines, but can’t do whiteboard coding during stressful interviews. Are these scammers or thrive in politics? Or just stress level is way too high during these interviews with 3 strangers in front of you sitting in unfamiliar office with unfamiliar computer.

abc-1 2y ago

From everything I’ve read, that seems to be the name of the game on anything beyond senior. Try to gather influence. Slap your name on projects that are going well, stay away from projects that are going bad. Say the right keywords that you’re supposed to say. It all seems so tiresome.

mandeepj 2y ago
> stay away from projects that are going bad We can’t tag all of them like that! Many times you build reputation by turning failures into successes
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  I imagine principal/staff level isn't quite high enough in many orgs to complete drive a project. You will just be arguing half the time with the director/product owner and forced to make compromises that were making the project fail to begin with

simonbarker87 2y ago

They’re not though because they are totally out of context, there are no real stakes and ultimately you aren’t building anything. If you like solving puzzles then LC is your jam. Puzzles aren’t the same as Problems. The point of a puzzle is to solve the puzzle, in which case my brain just simply isn’t interested. The is no wider end goal. The point of a problem is to solve an issue for a wider context and, untimely improve a system/process/organisation in some way. In which case I’m all in and my brain starts firing on all cylinders. The are no puzzles in work, everything is a problem. LC is nothing but puzzles.

VirusNewbie 2y ago
Uh, knowing when to use a hashmap, recursion and a loop is not a puzzle. It's table stakes.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  No, but "failing" because you didn't use map.emplace instead of map.insert on a test that didn't let you look up documentation and you code in 4 other languages is definitely approaching gatekeeping instead of problem solving. Nevermind that the parameters for STL maps are convuluted to begin with if you're not using them everyday.
- zelphirkalt 2y ago
  Which is different though from LC being overly specific about how long you solution is allowed to take and how much memory etc.
- simonbarker87 2y ago
  Of course, and nothing in my comment suggests otherwise. You’ve highlighted tools and techniques that can be used to solve problems and puzzles. I don’t enjoy drawing for the sake of it but I’m happy to draw a sketch for a home layout or woodworking project, both require me to be able to use a pencil, but one I will do well in the other I would fail at. My point is that there are far better ways to test that than LC. My favourite interviews have been “here’s a real problem, placed in context, how would you solve it?” And “here’s an app with a handful of bugs, please fix it”

johnnyanmac 2y ago

>an excellent indicator of problem-solving ability And completely devoid of how this works in the workplace. Instead, you are quizzed in a closed environment on a question you have no context for before the interview (i.e. no time to research the problem space). You are given a hard time limit to solve a problem perfectly with a proctor who can range from being a helpful teammate to a stone wall who just says "this is wrong" or "this isn't the solution I wanted". And if you pass that it says nothing about your ability to perform what was actually on the job description. Who wins here? And the kicker is you may not even get a leetcode question in my domain to begin with. So all that trivia study could be wasted and you fail on some deep C++ deep dive or math questions or any other number of tooling questions. every company is different and they all treat these "problem solving" like we're still in high school and can "cheat" the answer.