[mav3rick]

Yes everyone is a web developer who would never need to learn about "algorithms". Anything that works against this HN crowd is obviously a big plot against them. Never mind that most people can't differentiate when a map is better over a list. Or why binary search is fast. Don't know how or when to use a graph. These people are one trick ponies and never tend to grow out of their comfort zones. They don't have the foundations to work on new and exciting projects. But obviously it's the companies fault for wanting someone with strong fundamentals.

[EnderMB]

I never said it was a problem. I have a CS degree so it doesn't hugely bother me. IMO, it's a necessary hurdle to ensure that you aren't swamped by thousands of candidates at every location.

With that being said, I would consider knowledge of DSA and the knowledge required for a FAANG level interview to be subtly different. There's a big difference in knowing how to implement basic data structures, sorting algorithms, and implementing BFS/DFS on a graph, and being able to dissect a LeetCode style coding problem and implement a solution that's good enough for a FAANG-tier company.

As far as people being one-trick ponies, I would disagree. They've simply specialised in a different aspect of software engineering, and just like how a Google engineer can learn to build a dynamic API wrapper with Ruby meta-programming and Rails, a Ruby engineer can learn dynamic programming and Dijkstra's algorithm.