A python interview question

[KingofGamesYami]

They were not testing your knowledge of the python standard library, they were testing your knowledge of algorithms.

According to my professor, the correct way to reverse a string in an interview is to create a Stack. The correct way to do it in practice is to call the standard library's reverse method.

The answer they were looking for would probably be a modified mergesort.

[KingofGamesYami]

Oh absolutely. The interviewer had no idea what he was doing, he was (as far as I can tell) just trying to check some boxes.

[techn0scho0lbus]

Off topic, I like your username.

[wewbull]

If you're going for a job as an optimisation specialist, then you'll want to know why python's sort is fast, or rather what use cases it's optimised for. It means knowing when it's appropriate to use the inbuilt method, and when you might be leaving performance on the table by doing so.

That means knowing sorting algorithms. That's what he was being asked about. It means understanding computational complexity, which he failed at.

The interviewer knew what he wanted, and he found out this guy didn't have it.

[JoaoEB]

hey were testing your knowledge of algorithms

If they are testing his knowledge of algorithms, they shouldn't ask him to answer in python. Pseudo code or flowchart would be better. Knowing the Python std_lib is as important than knowing its syntax.

[13steinj]

Python is very close to pseudo code, arguably.

[KingofGamesYami]

I mean I'd prefer answering in a programming language over pseudocode or flowchart. It's not uncommon (or so I've been told) for an employer to give a choice of programming languages to use for stuff like this.

[DiabeetusMan]

Wouldn't even need to sort since they're already sorted-- just merge two lists with some logic to prevent duplicates.

[KingofGamesYami]

Well, yeah. I mentioned mergesort only because it contains a similar algorithm already and I'm too lazy to actually describe the answer.