I can say my game(s): https://wdpauly.medium.com/trade-economy-and-supply-3a9eff92...
fall into the scope creep issue, but at the same time the complexity and scale is what makes it so interesting. If you enjoy tech/programming then making something addictive and fun may not be the point so much as the mental simulation you get from the project as a whole.
I mean everyone is unaccomplished compared to chris sawyer for roller coaster tycoon :)
Most software projects are forgotten pretty quickly though, so if you're looking for a longer impact on life in general, consider the community you live in. plant a tree. clean a highway. Software dev is ephemeral, and most software rockstars aren't even known outside a small circle.
I logged in purely to say those are pretty ridiculous interview questions. At least the second question is ridiculous. Idk why people think riddles are a good evaluation for the actual job.
It's not a riddle. We usually give a very detailed explanation on the whiteboard.
Here are some example inputs and outputs.
45 -> 1625
36 -> 936
10 -> 10
Honestly this one is really to help us look at a person's thought process because there are multiple approaches to solve it. Usually people either go some variation of math route or a string manipulation route.
Examples of Programming Riddles I have seen first hand:
How to invert a binary tree.
Implement a binary search algorithm.
Design an app that generates all possible phone numbers that a knight chess piece could create by moving across the dial-pad.
In real work there is a whiteboard, but everyone in the room is part of the discussion. You're set in the context of the work being done. You are aware of the end goals. You look up things on the internet. You experiment and write tiny programs at a repl. You think about the work being done both actively and while sleeping subconsciously maybe even during your commute. You have conversations with coworkers - stress free. When people say "it took me only 15 minutes to solve this at work" they forget the prior 2 years of context setting.
Your question is on par with a math problem. If they don't immediately think about string manipulation. I would rather see a candidate walk through some of their code on Github as better example of their skillset or having a candidate do a PR review over existing code shows much more insight. Reading code is harder than writing code, especially without context. Both activities highlight communication.
One of the best interviews I ever had was doing pair programming on a real computer. The interviewer was driving (removing typing gitters, editor issues) TDD style. Write a test. How do we get that test to pass? Is there a chance to refactor? Everything that appeared on that screen had to be communicated. That was by far the most fun I've ever had in an interview.
We've done some of the same pairing type activities during our interviews. And I could tell within 2 minutes if the person was used to pairing. When a negative review would come back a lot of the time it was because "their communication could be better". Vibe is a thing and pairing is a skill.
At the end of the day interviewing is about playing games and the employer makes the rules.
Binary search is not a riddle... it's pretty basic algorithms knowledge. Had to look up inverting binary tree. Apparently it's just reversing the ordering, which is also very basic as you learn about binary trees in your 1st year, 3rd at the latest. The knight thing, sure. Idk, I feel like programmers should know these things. It's like knowing calculus as an electrical engineer.
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