Twelfth Post!

[hoisinsauce]

POST NAMER TBC-- work harder, meme!

Welcome back, anyway! Chat fandom, media, creative things, weirdness from around the net, funny stuff, anything! Meme awaits!

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Comments

Re: Coding

[(Anonymous)]

I prefer yours because they're less likely to have learned an approach by rote that disguises their lack of understanding if they're incompetent. That said, it's a weird q for a non jr position, except as a very basic filter, and I'd also be fine with pseudocode that just explains their approach, personally. For non-junior positions I'd want to check they were familiar with stuff like version control, code review, *some* language, and working with others. But I'm not really a leetcode type; I'd probably write you shit code for that question (or any coding question) if I wasn't expecting it. Guess it depends why you're asking it. I like qs that reflect the day-to-day. My honest answer to that q is that I'd google it. I can work it out, but in a work context, I wouldn't. I think any software dev *should* be able to work out a solution, but I'd expect more sr devs to better optimize the allocation of their time lol.

Re: Coding

[(Anonymous)]

SD

(I'd go "well, there'll be a library for permutations; that'll have a better algorithm than the nested for-loops I'll end up with" and I'd search "$language permutations function". :p)

Re: Coding

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, it's actually wrapped in a lot of fancy packaging, so a lot of the interview is actually about understanding the requirements and finding an approach for the problem. Most candidates seem to do decently well there, but once they actually hit coding the permutations they blank out. Had someone try to write eight nested for loops, which was certainly a choice.

I actually wrote this problem intending for a recursive solution (i.e. there's a fairly natural exit condition that allows you to short-circuit most attempts). Listing all the permutations is the brute-force solution, which is fine, but I've been surprised by how many people choose this solution and then get stuck on that part. Might need to redraft parts of this question as a result.

I'm also the designated coding and algorithms interviewer, so it's Leetcode or bust here. Usually I feel like my questions aren't all that tricksy, but I do love recursion and so many people struggle with it.

Re: Coding

[(Anonymous)]

:) I'd got as far as figuring out that it *should* recurse, but I suspect I'd fail this one through sheer laziness. Algorithms avoid me and I avoid them. Now, if ever you're having network problems and need someone to tell you 'it's DNS, it's always DNS', I can oblige.

Re: Coding

[(Anonymous)]

(but seriously... depends what kind of work you're doing. I think I've needed to do leetcode-style stuff on one project in my whole career. I learn stuff when I need it and forget it a week later. If the job's not leetcodey, leetcode questions might exclude candidates who will get it done. /sacrilegeous-devops-talk)