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>You want someone that can easily talk about the pros & cons of using different data structures or algorithms to solve problems.

uh, not really.

In my world majority of performance issues comes from N+1 queries, I don't need people who can do crazy things with trees. I need people who write testable code, actually write tests, care about security and take responsibility for their code/refactor.

Of course you can argue that N+1 query fits algorithms part, but very often algos mean leetcode

But, since "you guys" always talk about data structures then I'd want to ask - how often do you use something fancier than literal basics?



I was elaborating about fundamentals. Things like "we're going to need random access into this list, what's the right data structure?" and the candidate should be able to say "use an array or vector" and explain why.

I've had plenty of candidates who don't know what data structure to use in that example, and they just start randomly listing things...tree, hash, linked list, etc until they stumble on the correct answer.


How often do you use vectors, linked lists and trees at your job?


Often.


There's a saying I've heard multiple people say in the C++ world. If you use something other than vector, you need to justify it.


That's because of the way modern CPU's are optimized.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQs6IC-vgmo




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