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Yeah I agree that there is no need to go overly academic in interviews. I wouldn't ask about the different O-Notations and what they mean.

But if I give a code sample that has three nested for loops over some array and doing string comparisons, the candidate should at least have a vague idea that this might be problematic and could better be solved using sets or maps.



Yeah I agree that it could be better to explore this sort of stuff by looking at actual code. To be honest though you could come at it from more of an academic angle if the candidate has a more theoretical background. It's just about how the question is presented, being flexible with the response and ready to adapt if things don't go as planned. Maybe I'm kind of derailing the topic here to grind my own axe around some people's attitude towards recruitment :D




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