[donw]

While problem-solving is fine, I am not a fan of algorithms questions.

Not because algorithms are unimportant, but because being able to code a heapsort from memory is, from a skills perspective, effectively useless.

As the creator of Homebrew put it: "90% of our engineers use the software you wrote, but you can’t invert a binary tree on a whiteboard so fuck off."

To me, it is enough to know what algorithms you could bring to bear on a given problem, and have a rough knowledge of their complexity.

The things I care more about are: Can you tackle a messy-real world problem, one that doesn't have a clear solution? Do you collaborate effectively as a member of a team? What about your software engineering skills -- is your code well-tested and readable? That sort of thing.

That latter point is important. The best engineer in the world is a business liability if nobody else can maintain their code.