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Failing at getting a new job

protium on March 22, 2019

It's almost over year since I told myself "It's time to look for a new job and move abroad." What could possibly go wrong? Update: I got my VIS...
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radicalbee profile image
Abdu

You have been doing really good. My best wishes are with you, keep progressing. Would you like to share what coding/algorithmic challenges did you usually get? How important was Big O Notation during technical interviews?

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protium profile image
protium

Thanks!
Usually they give you a problem where you have to deal with large amount of data and dynamic programming problems.
Big O notation is really important. They will ask you what's the time complexity of your solution and how you can improve it. You have to be able to identify possible bottlenecks in your solution. E.g. if your solution is O(n2) they will ask you if you can solve it in O(nlogn) or O(n) and why.

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radicalbee profile image
Abdu • Edited

Thank you very much for the reply, Brian. I'll keep improving this part of computer science.

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Stephen Belovarich

Oh if only the job consisted of sitting around in academic conversations about Big O notation.

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protium profile image
protium

I think once you start measuring the time and space complexity of your algorithms you will be more aware about performance and prepare your code to handle big amounts of data. And that's important for companies, to verify that you, as a candidate, know all those concepts.

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steveblue profile image
Stephen Belovarich • Edited

Yes, I agree with that assumption. Give the candidate a problem to solve and assess whether or not they in practice they used the most performant algorithm. We don't need to have a discussion about all the different algorithm that could have been applied to the problem. I find too much time is wasted focusing on this singular topic in interviews.

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yuripredborskiy profile image
Yuri Predborskiy • Edited

Hey Brian! Great job! Thanks for sharing your experience! Best of luck to you! I plan to do a similar thing in the coming year or two, so this info will certainly be useful!

One quick question: did Amazon allow use of internet when solving questions requiring specific knowledge or did they provide formulas for finding distance for their question? Or did they expect you to know it by heart?

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protium profile image
protium • Edited

Hi Yuri,thanks!

I did the test in their online test platform. They didn't tell me if I was allowed or not. But I think this platform records your behavior, meaning: copy&paste, time of your pauses, how many times did you run your program.

Before the coding challenge you have to digitally sign and agree that you won't take screenshots and share the problems.

Once they send you this challenge you have up to 7 days to submit it. The challenge itself lasts 2 hours. But I think it depends on the position you are applying to.

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Yuri Predborskiy

Thanks for info!

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babadee08 profile image
'Damilare Durojaye

This is my story, I've reached final stages at two different German companies and learnt two different lessons that proved to be valuable. I'll keep trying till I get one soon.

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protium profile image
protium

Great! I've applied to one company based on Munich and the other one in Amsterdam. With all that I've learned from failing I felt more confident in the interviews. I'me sure I'll move abroad soon.

Best wishes.