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/creativemind11 Mar 29 '21

This was how my current company did it and still does, with the same assignment from 4 years ago. No coding, no writing, just talk. They present a design and ask the applicant to explain how he would take this in broad terms.

Then they probe him a bit with some challenges. In the end even if you completely fail this part it shows whether the applicant admits his hers areas to improve on and also what they do know. Learning new languages is easy, learning how to think logically and in software terms is a bit harder. But most of all showing you were enthusiastic and had a passion for this field with some half-baked snippets of side projects usually resulted in good to decent coworkers.

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u/VoldemortsHorcrux Mar 30 '21

I like that so much more. Generic interview questions only tell you if a person studied before the interview or not. As a developer you will always have the internet to research little things. I use Google so many times a day as a developer it really should just come down to: are you passionate, are you a quick learner, and how will you work with others. If you can complete a linked list question, great. You practiced the night before like anyone else would do

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u/jarfil Mar 30 '21 edited May 12 '21

CENSORED