[kisstheblade]

Yes but jeesus here we are discussing an algorithm that I first heard about in literally my first CS course on algorithms in my first year at the university, some 20 years ago. And I had to manipulate red black threes on the blackboard. Haven't seen them since in my 20 years of work in the industry.

I you need to write so performance critical code that the choice of tree structures matters then this interview question sure as hell isn't going to find out if you are cut out for it.

[DesiLurker]

I've interviewed many candidates for one of the big 4 & sat on the decision loops too. 'Attribute substitution'[1] one thing that does stands out in these interviews. essentially interviewers substitute answering the larger question of judging the candidate's suitability for the job at hand with a simpler but easier to judge (& defend!) problem of solve this particular coding problem that I have 'normalized' over many candidates. Also, deep domain knowledge is often hard to judge.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribute_substitution