undefined | Better HN

0 pointsljw10019y ago0 comments

Ok, people will write them, but very few people should write them.

Also, the question is, is the ability to write a BFS on a whiteboard a useful way to screen programming candidates for most positions. No it is not.

0 comments

bnastic9y ago

Tree traversal is such a basic algo that anyone who's done any amount of programming shouldn't have trouble working out how to do it, depth- or breadth-first, even if they haven't done that before. If a potential candidate can't figure that out, even in a simple pseudo-code, and even with guidance from an interviewer, I can't imagine ever hiring that person.

Next to arrays and lists, trees are such fundamental part of computer programming that I can't find an excuse for not being aware of some basic operations. I am not suggesting here that the RB or AVL trees and all the tricky stuff about them should be your bed time reading, but a certain baseline should be established.

p4wnc69y ago

Many highly skilled and experienced programmers would struggle with this kind of thing in a whiteboard interview, but then if hired would be very good at the job.

The interview scenario is just not similar to on-the-job coding. It has different social pressures, time pressures, access to help, access to privacy, etc. etc.

Plus, for someone like me (I studied machine learning and stats, and all data structure knowledge is self-taught post college, yet I have 6 years experience writing scientific code, performant database stuff, etc.) I am always hearing about data structures and algorithms that are supposedly "fundamental" but I never even heard of them before and have yet to need them in a job.

Basically, all of my experience, and all of the experience of hiring software developers in any of the companies I've been in just completely suggests what you're saying is actually not true. It's just a story we tell to allow us to keep our crab mentality hazing rituals.