Newbie Programming Interviews/Get a Job Megathread: Fake it 'til you make it

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New Yorp New Yorp: Jul 18, 2003; Only in Kenya.; Pillbug

I did it in 30 minutes in C#, but it's not code I'm proud of.

# ? Jul 9, 2012 18:57

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# ? May 7, 2024 20:22

how!!: Nov 19, 2011; by angerbot

tef posted:

Python code:

import sys
import collections, itertools

lines = sys.stdin.readlines()
num = int(lines.pop(0))

for b in range(num):
    size, n= (int(x) for x in lines.pop(0).strip().split())
    old_b, new_b = [], []
    for _ in range(size):
        line = lines.pop(0).strip()
        old_b.append(line)
        new_b.append(list(line))
    for _ in range(n):
        for r in range(1, size-1):
            for c in range(1,size-1):
                grid = "".join(g[c-1:c+2] for g in old_b[r-1:r+2])
                counter = collections.Counter(grid)
                new_b[r][c]='b' if counter['b'] > counter['w'] else 'w'
        old_b = ["".join(row) for row in new_b]
    print "Board (%d)\n%s"%(b+1, "\n".join("".join(r) for r in new_b))

this is probably wrong :3:

The problem I have with this code is that its not commented, not tested, not refactored to be readable, etc. What the hell is 'c' supposed to be? what is 'r'? Yeah it runs and gives output, but no one is able to follow that code and adapt it except for you.

When I did this problem, I did a very top-down approach. It looked a little like this:

Python code:


class Board(object):
    def __init__(self, board):
        """
        Process the ascii input of the board and store it into arrays
        """

    def do_generation(self, generations):
        """
        Process the board for the given number of generations
        """

class Chunk(object):
    def __init__(self, input):
        """
        Process the input so that we get the board data and the number of generations requested
        """

if  '__name__' == '__main__' :
    input = sys.stdin

    #in the sample input this returns a 3 item array of Chunk objects
    chunks = get_chunks(input)

    for chunk in chunks:
        board = Board(chunk.board)
        print board.do_generation(chunk.generations)

The I had a Chunk class that would handle the parsing, and a Board class that would implement the generation processing. I felt rushed throughout the whole process which made me feel anxious.If I had been given a few days, I would have gladly spent 8 hours each day to get it all right (unit tests, documentation, etc) because I drat well want to work at facebook... In my opinion, working code is worthless if you can't understand it/adapt it. In the business world assumptions are always changing and people change their minds, so code always should be ready to be changed. For instance, what if the format of the input changed? Instead through stdin, it comes in through an xml file? You'd have to completely re-write your program.

how!! fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Jul 9, 2012

# ? Jul 9, 2012 19:18

tef: May 30, 2004; -> some l-system crap ->

Python code:

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match.py posted:

code: