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The 'Trick' To Algorithmic Coding Interview Questions (dice.com)
Nerval's Lobster writes: Ah, the famous "Google-style" algorithmic coding interview. If you've never had one of these interviews before, the idea is to see if you can write code that's not only correct, but efficient, too. You can expect to spend lots of time diagramming data structures and talking about big O notation. Popular hits include "reverse a linked list in place," "balance a binary search tree," and "find the missing number in an array." Like it or not, a "Google-style" coding interview may stand between you and your next job, so it's in your interest to figure out how to deal with it. Parker Phinney, founder of Interview Cake, uses a Dice column to break down a variety of example problems and then solve them. But it's not just about mastering the most common kinds of problems by rote memorization; it's also about recognizing the patterns that underlie those problems.
I picked a random problem off the list called 4-sum, read it, it obviously had a solution in O (n^2 log n), and the bloody website claims O (n^3). They should be ashamed.
These interviews seem to weed out the people you want - those who can see deeply into a problem and create an elegant solution. And select the people you don't want - those who are good at bluffing. So I don't get it. If you did this sort of interview, you'd wind up with ... the steaming pile of Android code Google has now. Oh, I get it. Maybe Google should rethink their approach?
I had an esoteric maths class ...[which] had covered 3 concepts, 2 which I had mastered, plus Green's functions. I ... got a B in the class instead of an A, even after scoring 100% on a final exam that had a median class score below 50% - discussed it with the prof later, and he said "you still don't know how to use Green's functions, do you?" "Obviously not, didn't seem they would be required for the final." B for cleverness, for the A you'd need to learn the archaic skill .
As someone who teaches math at the university level, I approve of that outcome. One of the reasons professors are given so much power is to handle edge cases like this. I occasionally get students who work the technicalities like this, and it seems to me that it's great practice for them if they want to be a lawyer or a bidder on federal contracts, but short-sighted if they want to become a mathematician or physicist. You're not going to get too far in quantum mechanics without knowing Green's functions.
You personally may not have found a use for much, if any, of what you learned in your differential equations class but the demand that earning an A be associated with understanding all the concepts in it is quite reasonable. For other students, that grade would be used to determine how prepared they are for higher level (an, may I say, even more esoteric) classes in math, physics, etc.
To your credit, you seem more amused than bitter about the whole thing, and I do enjoy your story.