
Ask HN: Is knowledge of algorithms overrated in software development - denzell
Is there a necessity to have a good understanding of algorithms to be a good software developer?<p>I know some fantastic developers, who are great problem solvers, and they couldn&#x27;t tell an algorithm from an apple.<p>It seems all interviews and discussions revert to a grading based on algorithm understanding, and it feels like too much emphasis is placed on one marker of competency.
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viraptor
Knowing as in being able to recall the specifics of implementation? No. For
two reasons: 1. Unless your job involves custom data structures, you simply
won't remember them after a few years. 2. If you do want to use a specific
algorithm, in most cases you want a cache-friendly version of it. The naive
implementations rarely have the characteristics you want in practice.

Knowing as in knowing rough categories and being able discuss big O
characteristics when needed? Super useful. I could maybe implement one or two
dictionaries. Badly. But I know what alternatives there are, what names to
google for if I ever do need a custom dictionary, and how to define what I'm
looking for (for example lockfree inserts, or ordered keys, or max 2 memory
lookups per key, etc.)

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GFK_of_xmaspast
What kinds of problems are they solving that don't involve algorithms somehow.

