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0 pointsbanachtarski19y ago0 comments

I think this mentality is actually wrong. I've definitely met good engineers who were rejected for jobs they were qualified for because of these questions, but I've never met someone who was extremely good at these questions who turned out to be a dud after hiring.

I don't disagree with the hate towards the current interview process at larger companies, preferring take homes myself, but I think it's harmful to say that all they have to do is "memorize a bunch of ... techniques" - they're going to have memorize a whole lot to get through the interview process. In the process of memorizing (learning) those techniques, you're likely to learn a lot about the foundations of mathematical problem solving.

I guess I'm biased because I studied math in college, but I think we can both criticize the current interview process without taking away from the hard work of people who are actually passionate about algorithms.

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h43k3r9y ago

I have met many people in my life who are/were way better than me in chalking out algorithmic solutions but didn't even had a single bit of knowledge how computers and real softwares work. Many of these people are not good team players, don't understand the importance of delivering things, or simply aren't interested in the work they are doing.

On other side, I have also met many people who are extremely good at competitive programming and extremely good at their workplaces also.

So taking these two as suppositions, I have concluded that competitive programming skill is not something which can't be relied upon as a judgement factor for a good candidate.

Note- I once used to be a good competitive programmer during my college so I have seen both sides of it.

banachtarski1OP9y ago

I agree - I don't think competitive programming should be used as an interview tactic. That being said, if you look at the rating distribution of TopCoder/Codeforces problems, most interview problems (even at Google) tend to be around the 1500 Elo level. Around the 1900 Elo level and above, I think it's an extremely strong signal for a very talented thinker.

I'd much rather prefer a discussion about a previous project (open source or at work) with pointed questions about the code/design choices, a take home, etc.

iiiggglll9y ago

> I've never met someone who was extremely good at these questions who turned out to be a dud after hiring.

I have. More than once I've brought on folks who aced algorithm questions but turned out couldn't handle complex business logic. They could basically only understand code that fit on a page / screenful. Anything beyond that and they floundered.

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