
Vietnamese grade 11 problem equivalent to Google interview problem - creamyhorror
https://neil.fraser.name/news/2013/03/16/
======
creamyhorror
Cached copy:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:k4Sga1Z...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:k4Sga1ZZ10cJ:neil.fraser.name/news/2013/03/16/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=sg&client=firefox-
beta)

This is a really intriguing view of an achievable CS course in schools. The
Vietnamese government really pushed hard when they implemented CS in the
curriculum - very farsighted of them.

What I find a little frustrating personally is that in my own high school
class in Singapore we were doing problems of probably similar difficulty, only
in math. Now ten years later moving into coding I have to learn all this stuff
from scratch, not having realised how much (financial and personal) benefit a
focus on CS would have brought me if I had gotten into it earlier.

And even today we still haven't brought CS into our education system, not as a
full subject. The traditional sciences of physics, chemistry and biology still
hold pride of academic place, even though it would be more useful to diversify
what students learn (and help them get jobs in tech or start businesses). In
the age of the computer, that's a real shame.

edit: Is this story appearing on the front page? It doesn't seem to be for me
- was it flagged?

------
lutusp
This is an engaging, worthwhile read about the difference between U.S. and
Vietnamese computer science education. But if anyone has any lingering doubt
about the state of math and logic education in Vietnam and how it compares to
the U.S. version, one need only look at the history of the Vietnamese war and
the key role played by relatively simple mathematical thinking.

What do I mean? It turns out that the North Vietnamese, while evaluating
battlefield losses about the time of the Tet Offensive (early 1968), performed
a simple calculation and realized that the North Vietnamese birthrate was high
enough that they could (and would) tolerate their losses in perpetuity and
would therefore be able to continue fighting forever if necessary.

What I find astonishing is that no decisionmakers on the American side ever
figured this out -- the U.S. military and political leadership persisted in
their belief that the other side would eventually run out of young men and
women to send into battle, and would therefore have to give up. A simple
demographic calculation argued otherwise.

The above central fact about the Vietnamese War made American withdrawal
inevitable, yet nearly no one in the U.S. even realizes it now -- it's not
included in most histories of the war and its central significance to the
outcome isn't widely appreciated.

------
zaroth
I found the part about massive structural and cultural opposition to CS
education in America pretty interesting (if not depressing).

I guess even Google's "education department" feeling stymied by the crushing
force of American public education is not really surprising.

~~~
dmckeon
People tend to think of education in America as a big vegetable garden, where
every sprout can grow to its full potential and find its best utility on
maturity.

It is more like a lumber mill that produces uniform boards, some with more
knots and bits of bark showing than others, but all of the same nominal
dimensions that have not changed much since the 1800s.

We may see some change with the advent of MOOCs (if they spread to earlier
grades) and with the possibility of publishers being able to afford to produce
local-to-each-state textbook elements, but the combined influence of D. of Ed.
funding, Texas and California textbook approval, teachers' unions, and ever-
growing administrative inertia is a lot to overcome.

------
arink
Comments from previous submission:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5388535](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5388535)

------
rtpg
Actually I'm more surprised a question that simple would be a Google interview
problem. Unless I'm missing something, this is pretty simple isn't it?

