Deliberate practice techniques for software developers
Companies aren’t looking for competitive programmers. But because of how interviews work, it can seem like they are. So Quora ends up with some odd questions:
Do I need to be a competitive programmer to work at one of the top tech companies? (answer)
I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.
A popular criticism of coding interviews is that candidates can cheat by looking up common questions and memorizing the answers. I don’t know if anyone has succeeded using that approach, but it doesn’t seem to me like it would work. Is it possible to memorise the tricks of algorithm questions to crack the Google interview? […]
ContinueLong ago, I wrote an article about Profiling Java Programs with VisualVM. It can be interesting to analyze code to find performance bottlenecks. But for competitive programming solutions, it’s usually a losing battle. If you choose the wrong algorithm, no amount of micro-optimization will help. What are ways to optimize programs? My algorithms are strong […]
ContinuePeople often use the term competitive programming to refer to any activity (besides homework) where programmers create solutions to made-up puzzles rather than real-world problems. For example, consider this Quora question: Which is the best online judge for competitive programming, HackerRank, HackerEarth or LeetCode? As Bohdan Pryshchenko points out in his answer, these three sites […]
ContinueAs 2019 comes to a close, I’m continuing my tradition of reviewing posts from the past year. This year was divided into two halves. In the first half, I covered topics in discrete math, math for competitive programming, and math learning in general. In the second half, I changed my blog content approach. More on […]
ContinuePeople debate how useful competitive programming practice is for getting better at real-world programming. But there’s one area where it definitely helps: Why are people obsessed with competitive programming when it’s not used in real-world programming jobs? (answer) Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, […]
ContinueTo get better at solving coding interview problems, you have to solve a lot of coding interview problems. So a reasonable question to ask (though it’s hard to answer accurately) is: How many LeetCode problems should I do? (answer) Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of […]
ContinueThis question seems basic, but it’s a core issue in math and programming practice: What does one do when they read a problem statement, think a bit and figure they don’t know how to solve it? (answer) Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at […]
ContinueIn many Quora questions, people ask what’s required to start competitive programming. It’s not always clear what they’re looking for with these questions, since you don’t need to apply to be a competitive programmer. Online judges are free. Just register and try one out. Here’s a question where the writer is a bit more specific […]
ContinueSome companies use a combination of automated and manual screening when deciding which candidates to invite for in-person interviews. A Quora user had a question about that: Do companies that test their applicants using HackerRank actually look at the code or just whether they passed the test cases or not? (answer) And here’s another question […]
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