Yeah - why not just tell them?
You know, like IRL. What this is supposedly about.
Again, the question referred to the target performance, not the optimal performance.
You know, like IRL. What this is supposedly about.
Again, the question referred to the target performance, not the optimal performance.
Ed: to clarify a bit, in some cases the "non-optimal" solution is going to be the best one. And that's even before you start worrying about things like time/memory tradeoffs. When a candidate asks me questions along the lines of "which of the 2 input lists is bigger, what order of magnitude is the length, does XYZ fit in memory, etc", IMO it's a useful signal that shows they're aware of these tradeoffs.
From there, I can start to think about the running complexity (or whether it even matters, for the scale given). But if an interviewer won't even tell me that ... I'd assume they're just like making candidates dance, for the sake of making them dance. While they sit back and stare at their phone, and occasionally interrupt with "hints".
If the candidate wants to discuss performance, I’m obviously interested, but if they want me to serve a hint to them on a silver platter I’m just confused.