Simple solution to Leetcode style interviews

Amazon
LJle34

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LJle34
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Ask questions that don't need preparation. Accept/reject candidates based on the quality of discussion.

Ask a simple "scenario" question where:
1. The actual logic isn't too hard - maybe something as simple as taking averages/counts/sorting/hashmaps.
2. Candidate should be able to decide on the right data structure. Or at least the discussion leading to it is impressive.

- What data type should I use for this field?
- We want to take averages, so this is the way I should arrange this data structure for easy access

3. Look for industry style naming of variables, readability of code.

4. Look for whether the candidate asks about scale of the scenario.

These kind of problems are exactly what we actually do at work.

Leetcode (that too only Easy ones) perhaps make sense for school hires but industry hires should be asked a combination of OO design+easy logic+clean code+scale consideration kind of questions.

Even the end result- should not be to check whether the candidate completed the question, it should be more about the discussion and insights gathered about candidate's experience.

A really experienced candidate is automatically going to think in depth when modelling data, and that's half of the job done there.

"Square" actually started with such interviews but as they grew they also fell prey to Leetcode style questions unfortunately.

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