Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice

Re:Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice by jorblumesea on Sunday January 05, 2020 @01:23PM (#21962884)

I actually suspect that one of the main purposes of the algo based interview process is a motivation check. It takes time to prep for these interviews. Lots of time. So if you get a candidate that is crushing problems, it can either mean two things:

1) They are exceedingly brilliant and they can program decently

2) They have studied hard, they can reason and code decently

Combine that with a system design portion and some behavioral questions, and the company is probably getting a solid hire. Does it mean that you're weeding out some false negatives? Absolutely. But large companies don't care. The system works well enough, and until it doesn't, I doubt much will change.

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Re:Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice by PretzelFisch on Sunday January 05, 2020 @04:45PM (#21964359)

I still see it as an age experience filter the further you are form college the harder and more prep time is required to bring up seldom used skills backup to proficiency.

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Re:Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice by amznthrowaway5 on Sunday January 05, 2020 @01:56PM (#21963119)

If that’s what companies wanted they could remove the extremely biased human component and give an SAT like IQ test loaded with algorithms and objective design questions. The interviews right now are extremely biased and you get rejected just because some interviewer has a biased opinion of you based on how you act.

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Re:Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice by empath75 on Sunday January 05, 2020 @04:14PM (#21964154)

3) they just graduated from college and still remember all that stuff.

It’s an age screen. People in their 40s don’t have time to prep for those kinds of questions. Nor do people with children who might need a work life balance.

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Re:Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice by eikenberry on Sunday January 05, 2020 @03:57PM (#21964024)

But it isn't working well as they are all starving for talent. When your problem is that you can't find enough people and your pipeline is designed to be a strong filter, you are just exasperating the problem and need to rework your pipeline.

That is you see a lot of talk about this because "the system" isn't working. Some companies are trying new things, but you have to find them among all the ones who don't spend the time to try to find a better way.

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Re:Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice by commandlinefan on Sunday January 05, 2020 @06:17PM (#21964941)

Same reason they mostly require college degrees even though most of the work we do isn’t anything we learned in college - it’s a check to see if you’re motivated enough to stick with something difficult.

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Re:Algorithms Interviews: Theory vs. Practice by brendanw on Sunday January 05, 2020 @03:15PM (#21963738)

I've wonder if this + optimizing for sticky labor while meeting legal requirements. A person who has contributed to impressive open source ticks both checkboxes but will not pass FANG interview.

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