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> This same exact argument could be used to require every interview candidate to know assembly.

Yes, and that argument could be used to require every interview candidate to know quantum physics.

At some point you draw a line, and Google/Amazon/Microsoft/etc. have very clear pictures of where their respective lines should be. It seems to work well for them.




At some point you draw a line, and Google/Amazon/Microsoft/etc. have very clear pictures of where their respective lines should be. It seems to work well for them.

Think about it this way. 1st principles knowledge, like algorithms, isn't at all useful 90% of the time. But 1% of the time, not knowing it will cause very out-sized penalties in efficiency or debugging costs. Now take the frequency of the occasional 1st principles usefulness penalties and multiply it by all of the developer-hours at Google/Amazon/Microsoft.

That is why Google/Amazon/Microsoft do that!


>It seems to work well for them.

There is no proof that they are actually preventing bad engineers with this process or that they couldn't get much better engineers and fewer flops by fixing it.

People want to work there in spite of these irritating hiring processes. I frequently travel via plane but that doesn't mean I think the TSA process is good.




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