There’s plenty of griping about the coding interview process. But at least everyone gets to use their favorite programming language. When Microsoft interviews a software engineer, do they prefer what programming language is used during the interview? (answer) Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, […]
ContinueQuora Experiment 2019: Week 13
Stack Exchange and Quora operate according to different Q&A philosophies. One difference is that Stack Exchange sites separate questions about a site (meta questions) from questions about the topic covered by that site. On Quora, the subject of “Quora the Q&A site” is just another topic. In that topic, you can find questions like this […]
ContinueQuora Experiment 2019: Week 12
One way to categorize competitive programming contests is by duration. A short contest wraps up after a few hours. In a long contest you get several days to think about and submit solutions. With that in mind, Why would you not participate in a long contest? (answer) Why is this post so short? Find the […]
ContinueQuora Experiment 2019: Week 11
This week, two Quora questions about books: Does reading the book Competitive Programming 3 really help with competitive programming? (answer) Is it worth reading the book “How to Solve It” by G. Polya for competitive coders? (answer) Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at […]
ContinueQuora Experiment 2019: Week 10
Here are a few Quora questions for this week that approach the issue of competitive/interview programming vs. real-world programming from different angles: How would a competitive coder compare to a top-level programmer on real work projects? (answer) Do you coders think that coding test platforms give accurate results on your abilities? (answer) And a fun […]
ContinueQuora Experiment 2019: Week 9
It’s popular on Quora to ask questions comparing competitive programming (or competitive programmers) with real-world programming (or real-world programmers). For example: If you only know competitive programming, could you fake being a real programmer? But how would someone “only know competitive programming”? At a minimum, competitive programmers have textbook computer science knowledge, just like other […]
ContinueQuora Experiment 2019: Week 8
A Quora reader is wondering if technical interviewers are looking for a perfect answer (as required by an online judge) or if they’re more interested in conceptual understanding: What happens in a programming interview if you get the answer wrong but show that you understand the concepts needed to be successful? (answer) Why is this […]
ContinueQuora Experiment 2019: Week 7
I worked on a math project for the first half of this year, so I was thinking about the issues posed by this Quora question: Do I need to be good in math to do competitive programming? (answer) Programming competitions are not math competitions, so they don’t usually focus on tricky math problems, and they […]
ContinueQuora Experiment 2019: Week 6
Stack Overflow is working on changing their culture to appeal to beginning programmers and new users. Maybe they’ll succeed without driving away the expert users. But even if they do, it will take time. Meanwhile, people will look for alternatives, asking questions like How do I add more complicated questions to Quora similar to the […]
ContinueQuora Experiment 2019: Week 5
Achieving mastery in a skill takes practice. But is practice still useful for people who are already among the best performers in their field? How does Petr Mitrichev practice for Competitive Programming? (answer) Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at A Summer 2019 Experiment.
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