Re:Scala is the new golden child
by kafkaesq on Tuesday June 14, 2016 @06:19PM
(#11905797)
This is a classic heap problem. However, Python doesn’t have a proper collections library, so to solve it I would try to import a specialized module like heapq, which usually wasn’t included in the interview environments.
This is an odd thing to say - heapq has been part of the standard library since 2.3. The fact that it isn't part of collections... just doesn't mean very much.
With a few exceptions, Python was clearly frowned upon. Of course, no one ever explicitly told me I couldn’t use Python to solve a problem. The coding environments always had a Python interpreter, but the interviewers would usually suggest that I use “a compiled language” (read: Java)
Well, actually they were explicitly telling him, right there. But if their interviewing teams would let a candidate go on and code in the "wrong" language (obviously a huge waste of both the candidate's time and theirs)... then they have much worse problems than any of us are likely to be able to help them with.
This is an odd thing to say - heapq has been part of the standard library since 2.3. The fact that it isn't part of collections... just doesn't mean very much.
With a few exceptions, Python was clearly frowned upon. Of course, no one ever explicitly told me I couldn’t use Python to solve a problem. The coding environments always had a Python interpreter, but the interviewers would usually suggest that I use “a compiled language” (read: Java)
Well, actually they were explicitly telling him, right there. But if their interviewing teams would let a candidate go on and code in the "wrong" language (obviously a huge waste of both the candidate's time and theirs)... then they have much worse problems than any of us are likely to be able to help them with.