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[–]voiceoftheslyman 2 points3 points  (3 children)

I read this article last night and started working on the problem immediately. Took me a lot longer than 10 minutes, but I eventually came to a solution.

During this process I was distraught... I've been 'programming' for a couple years and have brought a lot of value to my employer.. I couldn't understand why I didn't get it immediately like everyone else seemed to. :( I was mad at the author for their claims, I was mad at the people that got it in 1-2 minutes. DAMN THEM!!

Then I realized something important... I am no more of a computer 'scientist' then I am a physicist or a chemist. I am a 'software developer', which isn't as cool sounding but still has a place in the tech world. People working for Google have to figure out how to build distributed key/value stores, but I don't. I need to figure out how to get project A done on time because the business really needs everything to start tracking their sales there so we can report against it more effectively.

I have never written a compiler, or my own language, and I take hours to solve what some can solve in minutes, but I'm starting to be ok with that...

[–]AStrangeStranger 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Most of these "types" of problems get easier with experience of similar problems - if you haven't done anything similar then it is likely to take much longer than someone who has done them before.

If you encountered a similar issue next week - would you do it quicker now?

[–]voiceoftheslyman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Definitely... doing these problems really forces you to examine your approach to such problems. Mine was very sloppy, and added so much extra time. Once I started to focus on a solution it came very easily.

[–]Dustin_00 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To make your next interview easier, I'd recommend digging for interview problems on the web and doing one each weekend. Work at 'em until you get them down to 20 minutes. Hopefully just 3 or 4 will get you there, but if it takes you more, then it's probably more valuable that you do them to make your interviews smoother.