In Defense of Leetcode Interviews

In most cases brute forcing a solution, O(N^2) vs O (N log N) is perfectly fine. Simply, because you dont know if this particular feature is going to survive, and if it doesn't there is really no point in premature optimisation.

And yes, I can practice for leet code interviews, but so can unskilled candidates. Beyond that have my current job, and my own life to deal with. So if I can apply for a job that doesn't require this type of interview, I will apply for those instead.

Leet code interviews also completely misunderstand the role of a software engineer. My job is to translate fuzzy business requirements into code, prioritising the must haves over the nice to haves. This allows me to deliver a solution on time and budget. If the product is a success, I can then prioritise refactoring some of the performance bottlenecks. It is almost never about writing optimally performant code.

Finally, with LLM, once the code has been defined, it is super easy to ask such tools to refactor the code to be more optimal. The hard part is actually writing something that meet the needs of the business.

Random questions with limited time to answer. Different answers depending on your experience. Nobody cares what your experience is or how it can benefit the company. Just answer the boring question, they assume you know nothing.