testerofwaters
Would be more valid to compare to Boost's "spreadsort" which is similarly a hybrid radix sort algorithm (and also outperforms std::sort).
Phone screen type questions might be stuff like fibonacci, find the min in an array, or find the intersection (shared duplicates) of two arrays.
In-person stuff varies: some companies ask me more practical/specific stuff like Ruby/CSS/JS implementation/coding/design/architectural questions. Others ask puzzle type questions that require me to use data structures in clever ways. Interestingly, hashes and trees are my go-to data structures. Do depth-first search and breadth-first search and that'll get you pretty far with trees. 90% of questions I'm asked require using hashes and/or trees in clever ways.
I actually find interviewing gets more and more fun as you get into it.
Otherwise, the reason I get these offers is because 1) I'm skilled in something that is in particularly high demand (Ruby), so people are more willing to excuse inexperience (but I get rejected often anyway), and 2) I apply to a lot of companies/startups - you only need to have a good day once.
Should I go to college or keep working in Silicon Valley?
I'm working at a startup as a Rails developer. I was hired straight out of high school, which meant being underpaid, though I've spent my time improving my skills. Long story short, the job market in Silicon Valley is really hot - I now have 2 outside offers in the $110-120k range (0-0.5% equity) at early to late-stage startups, and I might be able to bid the offers up to the 130k+ range. At...
Ask HN: Should I take interviews for practice/leverage?
I've been looking for a job. A few companies/recruiters have contacted me asking if would come in for an interview (I didn't apply). I'm reasonably sure that I would not accept an offer from them (due to company size, the company's product/market, and/or the company's brand), even if they gave me one. On the other hand, some engineers I've spoken to have said that their initial judgment of a...