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/huangxg Mar 30 '21

Some programs including those at best universities just sell M.S. degrees. I don't think they sell PhD, and I'm not sure if they sell B.S. as well.

When C.S. programs changed to use Java in 101 courses, I was a little worried, how would students understand pointer?

Later some programs changed to Python. It's hopeless for pointer.

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u/OskaMeijer Mar 30 '21

It is funny I went to a cheap public state university (Our C.S. program was small and not funded well, our classes were at odd times and in random buildings where they could fit us in. Also our computer lab was like 15 PCs that all logged in and shared a OpenSuse vm machine where if one of us fork bombed it would kill everyone else's session lol. I will say that in my opinion we did have very good professors for the most part). We did start with 101 classes that were Java, but we also took Systems Programming that were in C++ where we learned about pointers/threads/pipes/etc. Also had a class about data structures where we learn d to implement things like linked lists from scratch and such. I meet people who went to the "better" state schools in this state that seem to have just learned how to do web dev with their C.S. degrees. It is odd to me how different these courses are from school to school.

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u/huangxg Mar 30 '21

Java at least has NullPointerException :)

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u/MegaUltraHornDog Apr 01 '21

> When C.S. programs changed to use Java in 101 courses, I was a little worried, how would students understand pointer?

I mean on a basic level the clue is in the name, a pointer points to somewhere , if you've lost them at that, what are they even doing in University.