Do I really have to study trees and other algorithms for such a low level position? I’m all about bootloaders, silicon and hardware bring up and driver development. I don’t give a shit about balancing a tree or whatever. Why would they ask these questions? How does that prove I can do really low level stuff? We don’t ask high level software engineers how to setup page tables and enable MMUs. Why are low level SW engineers being asked about graphs and trees????
I have interviewed twice for similar roles. Not once in 11 interviews (if you count the phone screens) I was asked Graphs/trees. Last time I received a PDF from the recruiter with recommended material. It listed several chapters of CtCI, and not surprisingly, the list skipped all chapters related to Graphs/Trees and DP. I'd say focus on structures, algorithms, strings, bit manipulation and try to refresh C++ and STL if you are not familiar with it. It can come in handy for some type of problems. Good luck
Thanks! I feel better now.
Can you update the post with your interview experience?
It's their standardized process you just have to fill through it regardless.