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Cracking the Binary Tree Interview

Abdisalan on August 29, 2020

Hi everyone! I recently finished 3 months of interviewing, and I received multiple offers! It was no walk in the park because my data-structures k...
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pomfrit123 profile image
***

If programming is all about tree traversials then I dont really want to live in that world.

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Abdisalan

Sorry, its a bit misleading but that wasn't the only type of question I was asked! Its just an area where a lot of people struggle in interviews.

It sucks that a lot of companies want to ask white board questions instead of testing your actual project making abilities but at the end of the day we still need a job :/

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pomfrit123 profile image
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Yeah I know, interviews suck.

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Ben Sinclair

I agree. I think that if companies are relying on cookie-cutter questions about things you'll never have to write in your entire time as an employee, then they;re going about interviews wrong.
That doesn't mean they'd be a bad company to work for, though.
While I can dredge up the memory of certain sorting algorithms when I really need to I usually try to get the interview into more of a conversation where I can explain what approach I'd use in the real world instead.

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Matteo Notaro

Well, i can also say that if "programming" it's all about doing "tumblr" stuff with js I don't really want to live in that world.
"Tree traversials" it's Computer Science, not programming. JS animations can be wrote by toddlers.

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Abdisalan

We can make the distinction without attacking people who write js animations :)

Please be more considerate Matteo, it really goes a long way.

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Matteo Notaro

I mean, a lot of ppl thinks that CS is just doing fancy stuff with React/Angular & Co. and then say that real CS stuff are "cookie cutter" questions...

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pomfrit123 profile image
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I dont know why people bother with animations, they don't improve anything.

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Abdisalan

They improve the user experience! Imagine if there was no animation on any website, would that not be very bland?

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pomfrit123 profile image
***

They do, but sometimes they can be distracting :)

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Abdisalan

A little update for those who aren't following on twitter 😉

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Raghavan alias Saravanan Muthu

Congrats Abdisalan. I appreciate the thoughts of sharing your knowledge with a great intention that others dont need to suffer much. Keep it up.

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Abdisalan

Thanks!