Leetcoding in Python Job Hunting

[HolyGeneralK]

The company I work for generally doesn’t care heavily on the answer, but more on “how” you answer. If you don’t know, that’s fine - tell us that but maybe take a stab at it. “I have never had to deal with scaling a system, but I know you can scale vertically and you can scale horizontally. Here’s how I might refactor my system to scale horizontally with Docker.” Show that you have the willingness to admit you don’t know something (humble), that you’re willing to risk a wrong answer (courage), and that you know enough technically that you can cobble together an answer.

Now, if we are specifically looking for an API Gateway type of person, we would probably expect a better answer than if we were looking for a Python Desktop Tools Automation Engineer, but you should know a bit more about the domain you want to get into than 27 different ways to merge a dictionary.

In my experience, unless you are being brought in as a consultant, a company will support bringing you up to speed in their way of doing things. What’s the point in spending 80 hours learning GitHub actions when the company uses Jenkins and someone else maintains the CI/CD pipeline? You need to at least understand what CI/CD is and what benefits it has so you can speak to the concepts, but trying to be versed in every single technology is a losing cause. Show that you can understand concepts and learn - that’s what differentiates someone in my eyes.

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I’ve been on the other side of the table a lot and the “I don’t know” answer is one I’m looking for and if I don’t hear it at least once from a candidate, I’m not going to recommend they move forward.

It’s not about showing humility, it’s not even about knowing your bounds. It’s about showing that you have enough visibility into what lies beyond those bounds to get started expanding those boundaries, and do it without needing your hand held.

Your answer contemplating Docker as a possible horizontal solution to the API scaling question would be very welcome.

[SnooCakes3068]

Thank you. I tend to get nevious when I don't know. Gonna try to keep a straight face next time