[rdw]

> Code that runs slow over pathological input is nowhere near as dangerous as code that goes into an infinite loop over pathological input.

In my experience, these are not actually that different. Even in straightforward web development on smallish data sets, it's pretty easy to write something that runs "fast on my machine" but is so slow on production-sized data that it is effectively infinite.

[jameshart]

Yes, as I say, clearly it happens. But when it does the results are no worse than any other bug.

And it’s far more common, and more dangerous, in my experience, to see a loop that assumes it must eventually reach a terminal condition that isn’t actually guaranteed.

I just don’t think the risk of hiring someone who misestimates the time complexity of an algorithm is sufficiently great that it’s worth explicitly filtering for. Why is this the one piece of hard won experience or academic knowledge that we need a candidate to have before they join our company, given that it’s something that can be taught in a single CS101 lecture, and in practical terms, something I can explain to a competent developer in about ten minutes?