[great_psy]

I think to some extent is that the right candidates and employers are not meeting.

Working at a ~1k employee company, we have been trying to hire both junior and senior devs. Out of ~10 interviews I conducted for junior, only 2 was able to program a linked list, and even that was with hints. It was not much better for senior(more system design question instead).

I understand that leetcode questions are (and have been) outdated, but linked list for somebody fresh out of school seems reasonable.

And this overlooks all the people using ai to cheat on the interview.

I would expect in this market we would have better candidates. But for us it was a challenge to hire.

And let’s not even get started with all the ai generated resumes and candidates that don’t actually exist, or have the experience they say they do. Really a waste of my time to interview.

The recruitment process is not made for a world where anybody can just copy paste the job req and generate a resume that fits everything.

[stasomatic]

A linked list is your litmus test? You did qualify with your "leetcode" blurb, but last I've used one was in college 30y ago and never again. We are not all kernel hackers / bare to the metal here.

[great_psy]

What would be a reasonable question, that’s similar difficulty as implementing a linked list ?

We have tried other questions as well, with similar results but perhaps our questions are outdated ?

[stasomatic]

I am just a hobbyist programmer, but asking to implement a linked list, IMO, is like asking to build a hammer - harvesting the wood for the handle, smelting iron, etc. We know what hammers look like and do, they haven't changed much in millennia.

I'd move the questions up the level of abstraction, as in - given this problem, how would you solve it? You have access to a hammer, a drill, a rotary tool. Solve it using any one tool or a combination and then explain why you chose that tool.

[lubujackson]

Depend what your company actual does. More relevant tasks I have seen involve 2D arrays or transforming data from a Python dict, or parsing JSON. The idea is to test the ability to understand and manipulate complex objects, which is a good generic bar.

[FrustratedMonky]

checking in with my kids that just graduated.

linked lists aren't really emphasized anymore. languages have built in lists now. they had heard of them, knew what they were, but would probably struggle to do one from scratch.

of course i'm old school and kind of think that is basic, but colleges now aren't teaching it much anymore.

[GregDavidson]

If someone can't implement the very simplest Graph Structure, Linked Lists, then I assume they can't implement any linked data structure. Learning variations of Linked Lists is where you start, e.g. https://rust-unofficial.github.io/too-many-lists/

[steveklabnik]

Many working programmers have no need to implement linked data structures in their day to day jobs.

[elmer2]

At some point, I think companies will move back to in-person interviews only with a controlled environment, to ensure no AI cheating.

[AbsurdCensor]

I work in research and that’s how we’ve been doing interviews for years. Still difficult to find qualified candidates, but better than doing it all online and hoping for the best.