I haven't been asked leetcode questions in a while and when I was asked, it was an easy level problem. I don't know where they ask hard leetcode problems, I also never solved a hard leetcode problem on my own.

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bluGill 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

The purpose of coding questions should be a problem that you can solve in about 20 minutes, then they ask another, and then you get 20 minutes to either finish or talk about other things. If you ask questions where either someone knows the trick and they pass, or they don't and fail you don't learn much. You need to watch the person write code to see if they are reasonable about it.

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IshKebab 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I interviewed at an investment bank in London and they asked me pretty hard questions. One was to implement some multithreaded producer consumer thing in C++. I can't remember the details but it was... well you know how writing multithreaded C++ is. I was allowed to look up references at least. Took me maybe 20 minutes and the whole time the interviewer was just sitting on his phone while I wrote it.

Weird experience. Didn't get that job (probably for the best tbf).

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renewiltord 4 days ago | parent [-]

If you wrote an MPSC queue (standard question) with multithreaded demo in 20 minutes in C++ you’re pretty hot shit, mate. Their loss. It’s not that it’s hard. But that speed without error is just really good. C++ is particularly unforgiving too.

	▲	Jensson 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		He didn't get the job so changes are it wasn't correct.
	▲	IshKebab 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I can't remember the exact problem or how long it took but it was definitely some awkward multithreading. I'd rate my C++ as pretty good but probably not hot shit!

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bradlys 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm routinely asked LC Hard questions in interviews. Sometimes more than one in one 45 minute interview.

That said, I interview in silicon valley and I'm a mixed race American. (extremely rare here) I think a lot of people just don't want me to pass the interview and will put up the highest bar they can. Mind you, I often still give optimal solutions to everything within good time constraints. But I've practiced 1000+ problems and done several hundred interviews.

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fullofideas 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Not sure about the timespan that you are referring to. Post covid hiring high, in the last 2 years or so, the hiring bar has been extremely high, in general. Not denying your experiences, may be it is even higher for you.

Personally, my experience has been that pre-covid, majority of interviewers were assessing your problem solving ability and if you can code the algorithm that you came up with. Getting the most optimal solution and fixing all edge cases for all problems in all interviews was not strictly necessary. But these days, even if you have the best solution coded up for 3 problems and missed one edge case in the 4th problem, you are not “good enough”. At one place, I was dinged for not thinking of the edge case before I wrote the program, even though I caught it while coding it up, in spite of having the write solution for the other 3 problems asked in the 2 coding rounds. It is a tough market, and probably tougher for you. Good luck mate.

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ninja3925 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is not how it works. The interviewer knows 1-2 problems and there is no time for profiling since they are rushing through their day, probably focused on their day to day work. You are the least of their concern, believe me.

Source: we am a hiring manager.

	▲	bradlys 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I’ve been the hiring manager too. You’re severely underestimating how many people operate.

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koakuma-chan 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Do you interview at startups?

	▲	bradlys 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yes. I interview at everything from pre-seed to FAANG.

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saagarjha 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I don’t think being mixed race is particularly rare in Silicon Valley?

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bradlys 4 days ago | parent [-]

Very rare. So is being American.

	▲	saagarjha 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Absolutely not

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chipsrafferty 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I was once asked fizz buzz in an interview and it made me sad that some people don't pass it.

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koakuma-chan 4 days ago | parent [-]

I guess when you're brand new you don't know about the mod operator?

	▲	zahlman 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Even if you don't know about modulo, or (floor) division, you could subtract in a loop and see if you reach zero. Obviously not a good approach, but would demonstrate the kind of basic problem solving skill and ability to "write any working code at all" that this sort of thing is supposed to screen for. You could improve that and still avoid any division or modulus by simply keeping track of when the "next fizz" and "next buzz" should occur. (And output "fizzbuzz" when those numbers are the same and you reach them.)
	▲	IshKebab 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yeah I've interviewed people who didn't.