Re:The Worst Programming Interview Question
by aquamongoose on Friday June 27, 2014 @10:26AM
(#7954036)
With regards to (2), this is one way of solving the problem. However, your solution uses O(n) memory (where n is the size of the linked list), and the tortoise-and-hare algorithm uses only O(1) memory. Here's how it works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_detection#Tortoise_and_ha...
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unless the interviewer plans to move the goal posts, there was no specified memory restriction in the original question.
Complexity optimization is a generally useful skill.
"moving the goal posts" is called "every month at work, when you finish 1 task and then move on to another task, instead of going home and getting paid to rest on your laurels"
moving goal posts, is "I asked you for x, you provided me with x, but I really wanted y, so now I'm going to tell you you're wrong"
You want someone to answer a programming question within a particular set of boundaries, you set those boundaries.
Re:The Worst Programming Interview Question
by dllthomas on Friday June 27, 2014 @12:03PM
(#7954631)
I don't think it has to be "wrong". If I were asking this question, and I was provided with "store them in a hash", I would say something along the lines of "that's a correct solution" and then add additional constraints.
"How you adapt in the face of additional constraints" is very much relevant to programming.