[cosminro]

Picking up algorithm skills on the job is not that easy. You really have to spend some time, think problems though, play with them and internalize the learnings.

Your job in any company doesn't deal with algorithms that much but it's very useful to know them for the rare opportunities that do occur so that you make better choices.

As for YCombinator, in startups when you hit scaling issues if means your product is good and you're already on the path to success and you can hire someone with better fundamentals to help you deal with the load.

mzuckerberg (facebook ceo) Algorithm Rating: 1044 Total Earnings: $124.00 School: Harvard University http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=MemberProfile&cr=27613...

dangelo (former facebook cto) Algorithm Rating: 2351 Total Earnings: $3,082.50 School: California Institute of Technology http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=MemberProfile&cr=26098...

[stretchwithme]

Start picking up algorithm knowledge now online. This guy is excellent and entertaining:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpRRUQFbePU&feature=relmfu

I too have had interviews with Google and had questions about big O notation. And questions about sorting during interviews with several other companies.

Not knowing fundamentals like this never helps. Many interviewers will spoon feed it to you, but you're not going to respond to questions with all your mental resources if you're spending all your energy trying to understand the context.

But its not necessary. And it costs nothing other than time to fix it. And it may even be fun.

[davidykay]

Great link! Buckland is a stellar lecturer. Stumbled across him some time ago.