[ojbyrne]

"Implementing a linked list" is essentially measuring 1 of 2 things:

1. How long it has been since you graduated from college. The further away the less likely you will remember how to do it, because you will never do it after college.

or

2. How often you have interviewed for other positions, because that is the exception to 1.

[buckbova]

I'm over 10 years out of college. Last time I implemented a linked list was probably in my second year of a CS degree.

I still remember and will probably never forget how to at least psuedo-code a linked list. But you are right, I have never implemented it after college.

However knowledge of pointers, lists and b-trees have been very helpful multiple times throughout my career.

[EdwardDiego]

> However knowledge of pointers, lists and b-trees have been very helpful multiple times throughout my career.

Indeed. And such glorious moments they are when choosing the right data structure drastically improves performance.

However, if I were interviewing for a Rails developer position, the last thing I'd anticipate having to bone up on is algorithms and data-structures. I'd be expecting to be asked about... well, doing stuff in Ruby on Rails.

[yeukhon]

There is a reason why we have this thing called "time". You don't suddenly apply for a job do you?

If you were senior, 10+ years why would you be interview at this company? I supposed there are better positions out there for you.

Doesn't make sense with time. I didn't remember how to implement linked list after my class but I picked it up again over the summer as hobby to learn basic algorithm again.

[jf22]

I don't understand the point you are trying to make.

You're saying implementing linked lists are good only if you are trying to hire recent college graduates who will prepare for an interview?

[yeukhon]

I never said that. I said if people think the first bullet point is too much to handle, that's blatantly stupid. It isn't like the company is asking you to implement a red-black tree. I am not a fan of puzzle solver so I hate that kind of interview. But linked list? Come on.

it's like asking someone "Well, explain how list is implemented in Python" when you claim you have been programming with Python years. Well, if you can't even answer that question with a good estimate (it has a double space every time you create a list for example) then you probably shouldn't call yourself a Python guru.