Not an expert on Iron Maiden (I do enjoy various metal/heavy rock) but just a casual read through Wikipedia doesn't scream "music theory as the cornerstone of their success". A forced analogy that I think does not really stand on its feet.
I disagree with the premise that there's some crystal ball that those companies have which tells them that asking those questions somehow determines good candidates. It's more likely that it actually filters for the type of person who is willing to do his homework and has a good baseline of discipline and is willing to prepare. Which arguably has some value in itself.
I don't have a formal CS degree but I have studied and implemented data structures/algos and spent quite a bit of time (months) to make them performant inside a database. I can guarantee you that the knowledge that you will ask for in a whiteboard interview is way less than one percent of what's required to implement performant and practically useable data structures for use in modern programming languages and databases.
And the punchline is that it is all about the seeming minutia that the author is dismissive about. The reality is that the market for simple, generalist solutions in terms of programming languages and databases is zero. There's a ton of optimizations and literally HACKS (for a lack of a better) word that make real-world data structures and algos go fast. Just take a look here and tell me how many platform-specific things you can find (this is bulk of the implementation of persistent immutable maps for Clojure): https://github.com/clojure/clojure/blob/master/src/jvm/cloju...
Regular whiteboard datastructure/algo questions are nothing more than regurgitating 1970s theoretical solutions without much practical day-to-day value. Is there a hint of a knowledge you can extract by knowing them? Sure. Is it much more than that? I don't think so.
One of the defining traits of Iron Maiden is their use of double and triple guitar harmonies. You could say they popularized the concept and many newer bands were inspired by it. My favorite Maiden song section is the solo/post-solo part in Brave New World (live at Rock in Rio 2001). I think the success of Iron Maiden comes from the combination of theory, performance, lyrical content, image, live ambiance and a very charismatic frontman.
A better example of a band with music theory as the cornerstone of their music is Tool. I keep discovering new things in songs like Schism even after listening to them hundreds of times.
I disagree with the premise that there's some crystal ball that those companies have which tells them that asking those questions somehow determines good candidates. It's more likely that it actually filters for the type of person who is willing to do his homework and has a good baseline of discipline and is willing to prepare. Which arguably has some value in itself.
I don't have a formal CS degree but I have studied and implemented data structures/algos and spent quite a bit of time (months) to make them performant inside a database. I can guarantee you that the knowledge that you will ask for in a whiteboard interview is way less than one percent of what's required to implement performant and practically useable data structures for use in modern programming languages and databases.
And the punchline is that it is all about the seeming minutia that the author is dismissive about. The reality is that the market for simple, generalist solutions in terms of programming languages and databases is zero. There's a ton of optimizations and literally HACKS (for a lack of a better) word that make real-world data structures and algos go fast. Just take a look here and tell me how many platform-specific things you can find (this is bulk of the implementation of persistent immutable maps for Clojure): https://github.com/clojure/clojure/blob/master/src/jvm/cloju...
Regular whiteboard datastructure/algo questions are nothing more than regurgitating 1970s theoretical solutions without much practical day-to-day value. Is there a hint of a knowledge you can extract by knowing them? Sure. Is it much more than that? I don't think so.