Have You Ever Tried to Invert a Binary Tree?

Question

I think the famous Max Howell tweet is right in some ways, but for me it helped me develop a self-defeating attitude just as I was entering the job market. I never even tried to learn algorithms until now, and it turns out it's not that hard! I'm done eroding my self confidence out of some sense of correctness or fairness.This morning, I just inverted a binary tree for the first time, and it took me about 10 seconds to recognize the algorithm and about 60 seconds to code. It's simpler than fibonacci, and I'd encourage anyone who isn't confident in their algorithm skills to learn how to do it.To be fair, this is after about a month of studying 4-5 hours per week. So 20 hours of free time spent to gain a measure of confidence that I can switch jobs when I want to.

jstx1 · Accepted Answer

> To be fair, this is after about a month of studying 4-5 hours per week. So 20 hours of free time spent to gain a measure of confidence that I can switch jobs when I want to.My problem with this is that my skills expire and I need to repeat the study and practice time with every interview cycle.

roland35 · Answer

I graduated with an electrical engineering degree and have been doing embedded microcontroller code throughout most of my career, and have basically never learned algorithms. I decided to take some time and study specifically for interviews - but I found that learning the algorithms has made me a better software developer in subtle ways.I believe it is important for engineers to know "one level down", and it is good to know what the various data structures are used for so I can use the correct one when needed, such as set vs list vs deque, etc

iExploder · Answer

knowing how to invert a binary tree is skill you cant learn from an employed software engineer, a pathway to many entry positions some recruiters consider... overpaid

level87 · Answer

What resources did you use to study?