Big Tech Coding Interview Framework – Pt 1. Inspect
An attempt of a framework for solving whiteboarding&#x2F;Leetcode problems is helpful, and it should always invite us to ask what computer science pedagogy is missing. Any CS program worth its salt includes data structures and algorithms courses- they are simply fundamental elements of the discipline.<p>And yet, why are these interviews so difficult? I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s simply an issue of many people having gone through these programs and failing to absorb or retain the material. Neither do I think there is a severe mismatch in the material covered and the interviews. Yes, some interview questions are awfully close to logic puzzles - having to know the two pointer trick for detecting cyclic graphs, what CS program covers that industry-specific technique? - but others are fundamental applications of trees, graphs, dynamic programming, etc.<p>Could it just be that academic CS doesn&#x27;t approach solving problems in the same way as these interviews do? Are there meta-problem solving techniques that these courses simply don&#x27;t cover? Heuristics that must be applied when one approaches a general problem before the topic is narrowed down? &quot;Ah this involves a tree, ah this requires sorting, ah we should use a hash table?&quot;