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0 pointstheogravity1y ago0 comments

I'm absolutely terrible at interviews, especially whiteboarding, and the best ones either involve taking a tour of my own code, or them showing parts of their codebase and me asking questions around it; or, take homes and I have a chance to explain what I built.

I don't have the memory capacity that others do to just stuff leetcode challenge algorithms that I'll never use in my head.

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aoeusnth11y ago

In my experience leetcode is not really memory heavy (except in the competitive programming scene). It’s about being able to think of a naive solution to a problem, recognize why it is inefficient, and figure out how to make it efficient, usually with DP or graph approaches.

theogravityOP1y ago

> DP or graph approaches

I don't use either in my day-to-day. I also have memory issues around just memorizing these things. I can probably do it if I can look up how it works and then translate it.

I have a really bad memory and I don't know if it's related to being aphantasic or not (no mental imaging capacity).

aoeusnth11y ago

Again, it’s not really about “just” memorizing them, it’s about internalizing how they work to the point where they are second nature. Like being able to apply calculus to everyday life, once you have internalized it, it changes how you think about things and analyze problems. Learning calculus through memorization will not help with that.

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xigoi1y ago

If you think these things are about rote memorization, you’re doing them very wrong.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointstheogravity1y ago0 comments

I don't have the memory capacity that others do to just stuff leetcode challenge algorithms that I'll never use in my head.

0 comments

aoeusnth11y ago

theogravityOP1y ago

> DP or graph approaches

I don't use either in my day-to-day. I also have memory issues around just memorizing these things. I can probably do it if I can look up how it works and then translate it.

I have a really bad memory and I don't know if it's related to being aphantasic or not (no mental imaging capacity).

aoeusnth11y ago

1 more reply

xigoi1y ago

If you think these things are about rote memorization, you’re doing them very wrong.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse