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Your ability to solve leetcode problems fundamentally determines your job prospects, just as being attractive/rich/famous fundamentally determines your dating p

Your ability to solve leetcode problems fundamentally determines your job prospects, just as being attractive/rich/famous fundamentally determines your dating prospects. Whether or not this is a fact to be lamented, it's still a fact. Trying to get a job without doing leetcode is like trying to get more dates without being more attractive. Doing leetcode is how you get a job. Here's a formula for stable job prospects: walk into the interview, in 30 minutes solve the challenge that most candidates can't finish in an hour, spend 15 minutes talking knowledgeably about your solution, then spend 15 minutes shooting the shit and building rapport with the interviewer. Your pass rate will exceed 95%. To consistently pull that off, you have to do leetcode.

User23 7y ago
And leetcode is trivial. Think reverse a linked list or something. I used to ask candidates to implement binary search correctly and I stopped because nobody could do it on a whiteboard.
- shrimp_emoji 7y ago
  It's funny: if you asked me that right now, I wouldn't be able to do it. That knowledge was in my brain at some point, but it fell out. I can, however, implement a PR quad tree[0] (which is a trie and not a tree) which allows efficient coordinate search of a 2D space since that's what I've been doing most recently. I think that's more impressive, but it's not what you asked for so I fail the interview. :3 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadtree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadtree
  - User23 7y ago
    Yeah, that's how it appears it really works. That said, the fundamental idea behind bsearch is toddler easy. It's interesting that such an apparently simple algorithm, namely start in the middle, pick left or right depending on the key, and repeat, is so challenging to code correctly.
  - animal531 7y ago
    For bonus points you can also implement an Octree.
    - shrimp_emoji 7y ago
      That would be for coordinate search in 3D spaces. :D
      - User23 7y ago
        It's fun how easy it is to program in higher dimensional spaces and how hard it is to think in them. Mathematical formalism is a superpower!
ccdev 7y ago
Leetcode problems rarely come into play outside of tech hubs or quant firms. I live in Chicago and rarely encounter such problems in job interviews. And just Leetcode easies at that. They do ask you do take-home assignments, though.
mixtrola 7y ago
>Your ability to solve leetcode problems fundamentally determines your job prospects For those companies that make you do leetcode problems. For better or for worse, 95% of the places I apply to don't make you solve problems about algorithms or data structures. It's mostly about concrete knowledge in specific languages or frameworks.
- badatshipping 7y ago
  I’m using the word leetcode loosely. The broader point is that doing well on job interviews is how you get a job and thus a worthwhile skill to practice. Leetcode is just what big SF tech cos ask in their interviews.
- draw_down 7y ago
  Are 95% of them places you would want to work? I see stuff like this all the time- 80% of companies don't use React! Fortune 500 runs on Java! It doesn't matter what the majority of companies do. It only matters what the ones you want to work at do.
Cymen 7y ago
I agree with this now. I just went through some interviews and I should have practiced more leetcode, should have practiced whiteboard pseudo code and should have reviewed my big-o. With 10 years in, the skills needed to demonstrate knowledge in an interview are stale because things like big-o are internalized/intuitive and don't often come up in actual work (as something that gets discussed much as it might in an interview, YMMV). I really resisted buffing up in my interview skills because it seems silly but I realized after the last couple that it clearly impacts the perception of those interviewing you (should have been obvious as I'm interviewing others but not all places interview the same -- we don't ask much about CS fundamentals). And that perception likely has a big impact on your compensation negotiating because you're going to get pegged lower than your ability and be less desired unless you can clearly demonstrate your knowledge.

User23 7y ago

And leetcode is trivial. Think reverse a linked list or something. I used to ask candidates to implement binary search correctly and I stopped because nobody could do it on a whiteboard.

shrimp_emoji 7y ago
It's funny: if you asked me that right now, I wouldn't be able to do it. That knowledge was in my brain at some point, but it fell out. I can, however, implement a PR quad tree[0] (which is a trie and not a tree) which allows efficient coordinate search of a 2D space since that's what I've been doing most recently. I think that's more impressive, but it's not what you asked for so I fail the interview. :3 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadtree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadtree
- User23 7y ago
  Yeah, that's how it appears it really works. That said, the fundamental idea behind bsearch is toddler easy. It's interesting that such an apparently simple algorithm, namely start in the middle, pick left or right depending on the key, and repeat, is so challenging to code correctly.
- animal531 7y ago
  For bonus points you can also implement an Octree.
  - shrimp_emoji 7y ago
    That would be for coordinate search in 3D spaces. :D
    - User23 7y ago
      It's fun how easy it is to program in higher dimensional spaces and how hard it is to think in them. Mathematical formalism is a superpower!

ccdev 7y ago

Leetcode problems rarely come into play outside of tech hubs or quant firms. I live in Chicago and rarely encounter such problems in job interviews. And just Leetcode easies at that. They do ask you do take-home assignments, though.

mixtrola 7y ago

>Your ability to solve leetcode problems fundamentally determines your job prospects For those companies that make you do leetcode problems. For better or for worse, 95% of the places I apply to don't make you solve problems about algorithms or data structures. It's mostly about concrete knowledge in specific languages or frameworks.

badatshipping 7y ago
I’m using the word leetcode loosely. The broader point is that doing well on job interviews is how you get a job and thus a worthwhile skill to practice. Leetcode is just what big SF tech cos ask in their interviews.
draw_down 7y ago
Are 95% of them places you would want to work? I see stuff like this all the time- 80% of companies don't use React! Fortune 500 runs on Java! It doesn't matter what the majority of companies do. It only matters what the ones you want to work at do.

Cymen 7y ago

I agree with this now. I just went through some interviews and I should have practiced more leetcode, should have practiced whiteboard pseudo code and should have reviewed my big-o. With 10 years in, the skills needed to demonstrate knowledge in an interview are stale because things like big-o are internalized/intuitive and don't often come up in actual work (as something that gets discussed much as it might in an interview, YMMV). I really resisted buffing up in my interview skills because it seems silly but I realized after the last couple that it clearly impacts the perception of those interviewing you (should have been obvious as I'm interviewing others but not all places interview the same -- we don't ask much about CS fundamentals). And that perception likely has a big impact on your compensation negotiating because you're going to get pegged lower than your ability and be less desired unless you can clearly demonstrate your knowledge.