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by janalsncm 1116 days ago
I interview people and ask LC-style questions. It’s not the only part of my interview nor is it a dealbreaker to not get the optimal solution. Being a savant capable of finding a mathematical breakthrough in 30 minutes is not important. But it gives me a chance to see how nimble you are with code which is important.
1 comments

Why ask leetcode questions rather than realistic ones that represent the sort of code someone might actually be expected to write during the course of their job?
Domain specific questions end up being MORE unfair, from my perspective. They optimize for people familiar with a bunch of trivial knowledge that doesn't actually have much to do with CS.

As it happens all my "leetcode style" questions involve code I've actually written in anger for shipping software.

But dressing up hard problems in a bunch of situation-specific word-problem camouflage to make it seem like I don't care if you can analyze, apply, and discuss common CS concepts doesn't seem an improvement.

There is no "course of their job" at the largest FAANGs since they work in so many domains and markets and an employee may migrate between several different teams over the course of their stay. FAANGs want people that are adaptable, not one trick ponies.