Ask HN: Can engineers from Google or Facebook solve whiteboard questions easily?

Re:Ask HN: Can engineers from Google or Facebook solve white... by amelius on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @07:05PM (#17762669)

Yes, that's simplifying the problem by making assumptions about the data. Except you often don't know what assumptions you can make. Better to check the assumptions using the data before devising an algorithm for the given type of data.

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Re:Ask HN: Can engineers from Google or Facebook solve white... by edanm on Wednesday August 15, 2018 @12:24AM (#17763758)

I agree in principle. But imo in reality, what actually happens is:

1. Most data sets are roughly similar (or at least fall into one of a few cases).

2. Most algorithms are designed beforehand, on ideas of what data could be, not necessarily for actual data.

Take for example sort algs. Sure, you could look at your data and devise a sort that exactly matches it most effectively. But in reality, in most cases, people just use quick sort, which is proven to be efficient on most data sets.

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