Interviews are hard, and feedback is minimal to minimize liability.
But I can see why they would been concerned if the radix transform required for that problem wasn't obvious to you.
It also may be that they just came across someone who performed better for the same position, and might have accepted you otherwise.
So when I see someone who has trouble with that problem, my first guess is that they don't understand radices, which means that they don't have a good understanding of sorting, which means that they have holes in their theoretical background large enough to drive a small truck through.
Either that, or the interview just made them stupid, because interviews are like that -- but when the interview is the evaluation tool you have, it's the tool you have to evaluate people by. :)
CS theory may not be directly useful for most web development, but it provides a set of tools for thinking about problems which can be invaluable -- so it's worthwhile keeping up on it, even if you never expect to make direct use of it.
It also may be that they just came across someone who performed better for the same position, and might have accepted you otherwise.
Indeed.. my GF (which is HR) told exactly the same.
CS theory may not be directly useful for most web development, but it provides a set of tools for thinking about problems which can be invaluable -- so it's worthwhile keeping up on it, even if you never expect to make direct use of it.
Do agree. My degree was not full CS but I learned those algorithm and data structure in the college.
I do see value on it but it's kinda hard when we don't often use this knowledge. I mean, I do some sorting in some common tasks but I either have more tools and/or more time to solve that.
I was practicing algorithm solving for a few days the result for this job would be so much different but the practical result in my long term career would be minimal.
For me it felt like those physical exams where you had to do 30 pushups, 30 squats and run 4km in X amount of time. If you train to do that you'll be able to but it would not make you an athlete.
Thanks for sharing your thought. Very valuable!
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Interviews are hard, and feedback is minimal to minimize liability.
But I can see why they would been concerned if the radix transform required for that problem wasn't obvious to you.
It also may be that they just came across someone who performed better for the same position, and might have accepted you otherwise.
So when I see someone who has trouble with that problem, my first guess is that they don't understand radices, which means that they don't have a good understanding of sorting, which means that they have holes in their theoretical background large enough to drive a small truck through.
Either that, or the interview just made them stupid, because interviews are like that -- but when the interview is the evaluation tool you have, it's the tool you have to evaluate people by. :)
CS theory may not be directly useful for most web development, but it provides a set of tools for thinking about problems which can be invaluable -- so it's worthwhile keeping up on it, even if you never expect to make direct use of it.
Indeed.. my GF (which is HR) told exactly the same.
Do agree. My degree was not full CS but I learned those algorithm and data structure in the college.
I do see value on it but it's kinda hard when we don't often use this knowledge. I mean, I do some sorting in some common tasks but I either have more tools and/or more time to solve that.
I was practicing algorithm solving for a few days the result for this job would be so much different but the practical result in my long term career would be minimal.
For me it felt like those physical exams where you had to do 30 pushups, 30 squats and run 4km in X amount of time. If you train to do that you'll be able to but it would not make you an athlete.
Thanks for sharing your thought. Very valuable!