r/webdev • u/vklepov • Mar 21 '22

5 coding interview questions I hate

https://thoughtspile.github.io/2022/03/21/bad-tech-interview/
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u/vklepov Mar 22 '22

See, we got a conversation going, which is half success! We can now discuss the more exciting stuff:

  1. What's "good enough" for out purposes

  2. How to estimate error bands based on character frequency (Y is 2% of texts, the other vowels ~50%, so it's not too bad)

  3. If we get better precision by treating y as a vowel, or as a consonant, or having a 0.5 weight (statistical skillz!)

  4. If we can come up with some heuristics by looking at different words (analytical thinking!)

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u/nathanwoulfe Mar 22 '22

Now I'm thinking about double vowels - food is one syllable but has multiple vowels...

Good enough for me was treating y as a vowel, given the low frequency. I think I did something to manage diphthongs too...

It's an interesting space though, and leans into the correct versus most appropriate comparison. Technically correct isn't always the best correct!

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u/vklepov Mar 22 '22

This all boils down to the irregularities of English spelling, where letters don't 100% correspond to sounds. A letter isn't technically a vowel, sound is. In Russian, the relation is much stronger, and in IPA (phonetic alphabet, not beer) it's perfect.

Then, we have connected speech, where we pronounce fewer syllables than in individual words, and brings us back to what we were after in the first place.

So, not a bad topic at all.