[pavlov]

> "I know the solution, so I frequently guide the interviewee towards the correct answer and offer my help. Plus I put my nice guy hat on."

I wouldn't want to work with a person whose idea of a useful job interview is:

"I'll pick an esoteric bullshit problem, put my nice guy hat on, and guide you towards the solution as I bask in your admiration of my largesse."

It's like when self-declared "nice guys" approach women: when you have to make an explicit point about how nice you are being right now, you're probably doing something very wrong.

[srean]

I think its a win win. They get to pick someone who is more suited to their needs (problem solving that needs some algorithms thinking) and you get to work at a place where things are more rote.

[pavlov]

Do you think that "I'll put my nice hat on and guide you to the solution, if I feel like it" is an optimal way to measure "problem solving that needs some algorithms thinking"?

[srean]

Well, of course one can be a dick about it, but nothing in the parent post indicated that he was. May be you had a bad experience in the past and projecting it on the author of the comment. I tend to / try to assume good faith.

Picking up loosely specified directions and filling up the gaps is indeed an important skill to have. If I had the time to describe the solution in the minutest detail to a co-worker, I would have the time to write it myself. Often, its a luxury that I dont have. In such situations I would certainly appreciate the skill that a co-worker can fill in the necessary detail from pointers and rough directions.

[pavlov]

A whiteboard DP puzzle is totally different from any real-world engineering situation of “picking up loosely specified directions and filling up the gaps.”

No point in arguing this further. These tests are fundamentally just a performative power trip masquerading as objective measurement — the perfect storm of software engineer bias.

[srean]

I think you are projecting your own biases here. OP said "DP question", there is no mention of a 'puzzle' anywhere. As I said in another comment of mine on this page, I have had to use DP in each of my last three years in real projects. If i were to hire someone for help with these, I would definitely be looking for comfort with DP styled thinking in a candidate. In order to do so I do have to simplify and abstract out the problem statement.