I just recently took the TripleByte test and while I passed the multiple choice section I totally bombed the round 2 online timed 15 minute problems. The first question I literally stared at for the whole 15 minutes and couldn’t even figure out what exactly it was asking me to do and timed out with zero code written (I won’t explain it in detail because I respect their platform and don’t want to give people an unfair advantage). The second problem I feel like I had a grasp of and was working on a solution but when I was almost done the time ran out so I had an incomplete solution. Also when thinking about the problem later i’m pretty sure my solution could be more efficient and it probably wouldn’t have been good enough to get me to the in person round.
Since I did so poorly I’ve started doing one 15 minute timed whiteboard problem a day (I then type my code into HackerRank and see if it passes), i’m starting with HackerRank’s interview preparation section and after I finish that i’ll do Cracking the Coding interview problems. The reason i’m only doing 1 a day is i’m not getting any interviews right now so i’m using my other time working through freeCodeCamp to get some React projects under my belt. I did the legacy front end certification about a year ago but used either vanilla js or Angular 1.x on all of the projects.
TripleByte’s failure email recommended The Algorithm Design Manual book to help with Algorithms so I ordered it on Amazon and will read it after I finish Clean Code (it was probably a bad choice for me to start with Clean Code because I don’t think people care about code quality as much as correctness and algorithm proficiency in new developers).
My major concern is that I took had Algorithm and Data Structures classes in college, I’ve done lots of coding problems on Codewars (https://www.codewars.com/users/MP7373), and yet I still failed so tragically on those 2 timed interview questions. I’ve heard that intelligence isn’t something that can be learned, i’ve heard (admittedly second hand) that IQ research says that even if the questions are changed the same people always end up at the top. I understand that IQ isn’t a comprehensive measure of intelligence but I fear that other things might mirror the futility of trying to improve it.
If i’m not one of the super genius people is it possible for me to ever get good enough at algorithms to get a job as a programmer? Like I graduated with a CS degree 2 years ago (with a really low GPA at 2.79) and if i’ve already taken this long and been unsuccessful does that mean I just don’t have the natural ability to ever cut it? These sorts of thoughts just eat at me so I had to voice them, I don’t want to make the atmosphere of this forum negative it’s just I needed to voice this somewhere.