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0 pointsahelwer6y ago0 comments

I disagree. Doing competitive-style programming and learning all sorts of weird algorithms has not made me a better engineer. I can count on one hand the number of times in my career that I have had to design or use an "interesting" algorithm - and no, not in the "not knowing what you don't know" sense where I could have used one if only I'd known about it.

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sanderjd6y ago

I'm very critical of this approach to interviewing in general, but it also isn't the same as competitive programming and it isn't focused on "interesting" algorithms. It is far more focused on understanding how to use data structures and the trade offs between them. Chapter 3 of "The Algorithm Design Manual" (which is fittingly titled "Data Structures") is really the most useful reference for the majority of these interviews. I don't think this is the most useful thing for software developers to be good at, but it's definitely useful and worth learning. I was annoyed that I had to study for one of these interviews, but ended up being pleased that it forced me to review this material.

blackflame70006y ago

Most algorithms focus on:

1) binary trees for which theres usually a STL

2) some sort of odd string / array manipulation that never comes up in real life

3) some sort of linked list manipulation where again there is an STL for that and/or wouldn’t come up in real life

4) some optimized algorithm that literally took the first person years to discover prims vs kruskals MST for example, but now is expected to “figure out” on the fly.

5) Expects you to solve all these tasks with an insane time pressure that again is not a simulation of real life, it just makes it stressful almost as a rite of passage

sanderjd6y ago

None of that rings true to me. Like I said, I really dislike the way we do interviews, but I find this to all be exaggerated to the point that it weakens your argument.

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sanderjd6y ago

blackflame70006y ago

Most algorithms focus on:

1) binary trees for which theres usually a STL

2) some sort of odd string / array manipulation that never comes up in real life

3) some sort of linked list manipulation where again there is an STL for that and/or wouldn’t come up in real life

4) some optimized algorithm that literally took the first person years to discover prims vs kruskals MST for example, but now is expected to “figure out” on the fly.

5) Expects you to solve all these tasks with an insane time pressure that again is not a simulation of real life, it just makes it stressful almost as a rite of passage

sanderjd6y ago

None of that rings true to me. Like I said, I really dislike the way we do interviews, but I find this to all be exaggerated to the point that it weakens your argument.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse