Class 36
Back to home page
DSA Review
Q. What are the key pieces of advice mentioned in the “Whiteboard Advice” reading assignment for successfully tackling whiteboard interviews?
- Communication is key! Dont tackle the problem immediately, start off slow by restating the question, stating the problem domain, input and output. Ask for edge cases to further your understanding of the problem domain. Ask for some test cases and make up some pseudo code to see if it makes sense. Speak to the interviewer about what your doing throughout the process and make sure to ask questions when they come up.If you get stuck, ask for some help or guidence! Communication between you and the interviewer shows them that you are willing to work with someone to acheive better understanding, work through a tough problem and show you can get help when you need it.
Q. From the “6 tips to ace a whiteboard programming interview” article, can you identify and explain at least two strategies that can help improve your performance during a whiteboard programming interview?
- The first piece of advice they gave was to not immedietaly start up talking. Ask your interviewer if you can take a minute to figure out and process the problem. The second piece of advice I took was to write down the steps for your solution. This could be your visual or an algorithm, but once you have an idea of how to approach the problem, write down the steps so you dont forget.
Q. What does Gayle McDowell say about interview preparation in the Engineering Interview Process Deconstructed video?
- Gayle talked about how she still thinks its important for developers to know data structures even if they are not using them in their day to day job. This is because they want the interview process to be predictable in a sense, as in knowing your gonna get a problem that will most likely be using a data structure. She also talked about how shes not looking at how candidates solve the problem in the fastest amount of time, but how they make progress, ask clarifying questions and get a better understanding of what their working with. Interviewers are not looking for the fastest coders, they are looking for problem solvers.