Comment by throwaway31131

I’d say it’s not even problem solving and it’s more pattern recognition.

I actually love LC and have been doing a problem a week for years. Basically I give myself 30 minutes and see what I can do. It’s my equivalent to the Sunday crossword. After awhile the signals and patterns became obvious, to me anyway.

I also love puzzlerush at chess.com. In chess puzzles there are patterns and themes. I can easily solve a 1600 rated problem in under 3 seconds for a chess position I’ve never seen before not because I solve the position by searching some move tree in my mind, I just recognize and apply the pattern. (It also makes it easier to trick the player when rushing but even the tricks have patterns :)

That said, in our group we will definitely have one person ask the candidate a LC style question. It will probably be me asking and I usually just make it up on the spot based on the resume. I think it’s more fun when neither one of us know the answer. Algorithm development, especially on graphs, is a critical part of the job so it’s important to demonstrate competency there.

Software engineering is a hugely diverse field now. Saying you’re a programmer is kinda like saying you’re an artist. It does give some information but you still don’t really know what skill set that person uses day to day.