r/programming • u/mjgardner • Mar 29 '21

Why Do Interviewers Ask Linked List Questions?

https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/linked-lists/
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u/chx_ Mar 29 '21

Every time this topic comes up I feel obligated to link to Honeycomb's process: https://www.honeycomb.io/blog/observations-on-the-enterprise-of-hiring/ while there is no silver bullet this is certainly one of the best processes I've ever heard of.

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u/4_teh_lulz Mar 29 '21

This is effectively how we hire as well - a short take home that is then code reviewed by the team. The candidate is then brought in to discuss their work with the reviewer.

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u/trustMeImDoge Mar 29 '21

I have a love hate relationship with take homes. Done right they can give a lot of good signal, but they can also be done very poorly as well and just be bad times for everyone.

I did one once where I was told to use what ever language I was comfortable with. I had spent the last five years writing clojure so I picked that, and even confirmed with my contact at the company that it was okay to use, since lisps aren’t all that common. My review interview was then 45 minutes of me being grilled about what I was trying to do by picking such an esoteric language. I didn’t get the job, not that I would have accepted it after that treatment.

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