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Re:Why Linked Lists Are an Interview Staple by dragonwriter on Thursday June 06, 2019 @04:04AM (#20112486)
> What does that help prove though?

It's a weak filter for “recent grad”, and along with other individually weak filters a tool for under-the-radar age discrimination.

Re:Why Linked Lists Are an Interview Staple by umanwizard on Thursday June 06, 2019 @01:43PM (#20116976)
Well it is correlated with being a recent CS grad, just like, for example, knowing that d(sin(x))/dx = cos(x) is correlated with being a recent math or engineering grad.

But that's certainly not what it actually measures, which is basic knowledge about data structures. It just so happens that being a recent CS grad is statistically correlated with knowledge about data structures.

But it's certainly not a necessary condition. I am not any sort of CS grad, recent or otherwise, and I still know how to implement a linked list, because I learn things on my own, and refresh my memory about things I forget over time.