Algorithms is one area where I tend to think “oh, I know this stuff” but then it turns out I am not as proficient in it as I would like to believe. I am currently reading one of the books Steve mentioned, Introduction to Algorithms, and found it very informative. (Although I tend to skip over the “hard” math stuff and the proofs… that is not really my cup of tea.)

Ironically, I don’t think I did so bad in this area during my interview (although it’s possible that I needed too many hints… I don’t know, they don’t tell you this). ¹) I actually felt pretty good about it until my third interview, which was about SQL. I completely blew that one. It’s ironic because at my then-current job I had been dealing with SQL problems for years.

I like the “practice writing on whiteboard” idea mentioned in the article. Coincidentally (or maybe not), the SQL interviewer was the first and only one that required me the use the whiteboard, where all other interviewers let me have a choice. I chose to just sit at the table and scribble on paper, because having to stand and write on a whiteboard, with others watching me, tends to bring back all kinds of unpleasant high school memories and feelings. (I am not saying that this was the reason I did so bad at this part, but it definitely didn’t help.)

And another thing: writing code from scratch on paper or whiteboard is *not* easy! It’s amazing how attached you can get to editors, where you can just write whatever comes to mind, overwrite, delete, change, move stuff around, etc. You don’t realize how much you depend on this until you have to write code on paper. Something else to practice, should they ever want me back for an interview. ^_^’

¹) Of course, it’s entirely possible that I didn’t do so well in the other interviews after all, but rather see things through rose-colored glasses, because I liked the whole experience.