> The bus driver’s watch was broken, and he needed to time 15 minutes. Luckily I had with me two ropes of varying density, both of which burn for exactly one hour…<p>Light both ends of one rope and one end of another. When the first rope is burnt, the time starts, light the other end of the second rope--it should burn for 15 minutes.
I tried interviewing at a couple of FAANGs without the prescribed 'leetcoding' prep work. And failed each time. I see my career as being pretty successful despite those failures, I'm not bitter about the interviews. I believe that passing these tests sends a strong positive signal. Failing the tests send a mild negative signal. But if you're paying top dollar you can afford false negatives especially if you can preserve as many true positives as possible.<p>If there's a downside it's probably that they are stacking their deck with extreme outliers. Maybe this process ends up selecting undesirable qualities not tested in interviews.<p>All that said, this was an entertaining read.
Talking about a mismatch between technical interviewing practices and academia on the one hand and the real-life experience on the other...<p>Of course, this piece is a satire, I am just a bit sad that the author did not show his real day in the life of a professional software engineer as a contrast.