I see that you're the author. Thanks for replying!
> Sure, there's plenty of software development which doesn't involve fancy algorithms or data structures... avoiding computer architecture, operating systems, mathematics, networking, databases, and distributed systems as well is a bit harder.
This is at odds with the statement in your article that jumped out at me:
"If you can't answer the majority of the questions on these four papers, and you're working or intend to work as a software developer, you should ask yourself why--"
I disagree, and furthermore, adding more topics means that your assertion is going to be less accurate.
Of course, it's better to know more, and I'm glad to have a computer science degree. However, I think that conflating having a computer science background and general software development is confirmation bias. I don't have data to back me up, but I believe that it's more common to simply not need to know what a bipartite graph is, or even a majority set of these topics. Given the theoretical grounding of the question in your first block, I'm guessing that parts 2-4 will be similarly structured.
Computer science is one slice of software development. Software development is a huge, deep field. A software development exam could just as easily contain an exam including the following topics: communicating effectively through email, distilling requirements from customers, writing meaningful commit messages, testing theory, or hundreds of other non-theoretical topics.
What I'm trying to say is that your exam is a good reminder of computer science at the root of many of the fields of knowledge in software, and is fun, but it's not representative of software development. In a given year, most software developers are going to spend more time puzzling through garden-variety implementation bugs than thinking about any two of the questions you list. Which is why they're not "lucky". :)
Yeah, but they are really important to know for interviews. Which of course may or may not have anything to do with the actual life of a developer, but that's life.
whenever prospective employer has this type of CS trivia questions I lose interest to work in that environment regardless if I know or don't know answers. It shows lack of maturity and experience to understand what are actually characteristics to look for to determine good developer. This type of questions might be useful for non experienced candidates but it is fairly counterproductive for experienced candidates
Last year I interviewed a BigCorp which was all about these interviews. The first guy clearly told me that the project was sort of stuck and they needed to sprint to make it happen.
The interview was 99% math. The people who asked me question looked all smart alecs and their questions all seemed to indicate that they wanted to show me how intelligent they are, and how stupid I am.
By the end of the interview it was clear to me why they were stuck. Those people had absolutely no interest in building things. It was all about individual One-upmanship, and showing their little math and puzzle tricks they would have gathered by combined reading on the internet over the years.
> Sure, there's plenty of software development which doesn't involve fancy algorithms or data structures... avoiding computer architecture, operating systems, mathematics, networking, databases, and distributed systems as well is a bit harder.
This is at odds with the statement in your article that jumped out at me:
"If you can't answer the majority of the questions on these four papers, and you're working or intend to work as a software developer, you should ask yourself why--"
I disagree, and furthermore, adding more topics means that your assertion is going to be less accurate.
Of course, it's better to know more, and I'm glad to have a computer science degree. However, I think that conflating having a computer science background and general software development is confirmation bias. I don't have data to back me up, but I believe that it's more common to simply not need to know what a bipartite graph is, or even a majority set of these topics. Given the theoretical grounding of the question in your first block, I'm guessing that parts 2-4 will be similarly structured.
Computer science is one slice of software development. Software development is a huge, deep field. A software development exam could just as easily contain an exam including the following topics: communicating effectively through email, distilling requirements from customers, writing meaningful commit messages, testing theory, or hundreds of other non-theoretical topics.
What I'm trying to say is that your exam is a good reminder of computer science at the root of many of the fields of knowledge in software, and is fun, but it's not representative of software development. In a given year, most software developers are going to spend more time puzzling through garden-variety implementation bugs than thinking about any two of the questions you list. Which is why they're not "lucky". :)