Data structures and algorithms I actually used while working at tech companies
Early in my career, I interviewed at Google. One of the interviewer asked me to recite the algorithm for constructing a Convex Hull. Since I hadn't done anything related to convex hulls since my algorithms class as a sophomore in college (several years earlier), I couldn't remember all the details. At some point, I said, I know where in CLRS (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-3rd-MIT-Press/dp/0262033844" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-3rd-MIT-Press...</a>) this is. The interviewer didn't like this, so he said "Pretend you're an engineer at Google. You need to have a convex hull. What do you do?" And I said probably the most correct thing I've said in any interview: "I would go look it up." He really didn't like this answer, but we struggled together for an hour, with him frustrated that I couldn't remember the details of an algorithm I last had seen 6 years earlier and couldn't recite in 60 minutes what took our professor 180 minutes of lectures to cover, and me frustrated that would have taken me 30 seconds to look up.<p>I did not get the job at Google.<p>I do make sure as a more senior engineer at my current company I use what leverage I have to make sure other interviewers don't ask pointless questions like this.