Solving a classic interview problem with Go
Programming Snapshot – Go Slices
© Lead Image © bowie15, 123rf
Springtime is application time! Mike Schilli, who has experience with job application procedures at companies in Silicon Valley, digs up a question asked at the Google Engineering interview and explains a possible solution in Go.
The TechLead [1], Patrick Shyu, is a YouTube celebrity whose videos I like to watch. The former Google employee, who has also completed a gig at Facebook, talks about his experiences as a software engineer in Silicon Valley in numerous episodes on his channel (Figure 1). His trademark is to hold a cup of coffee in his hand and sip it pleasurably every now and then while he repeatedly emphasizes that he's the "tech lead." That's how Google refers to lead engineers who set the direction for the other engineers on the team. The first-line managers there traditionally stay out of technical matters and focus primarily on staffing and motivating their reports.
One episode on the TechLead channel is about typical questions asked at interviews at Google, of which the former employee says he has conducted hundreds. In this Snapshot issue, we'll tackle one of the quiz questions that he allegedly invented himself and kept asking, a slightly modified version of the flood fill problem [2]. The latter is so well-known that by now any candidate can rattle off the solution blindfolded. That's why Google has removed it from the list of questions, and the TechLead created his own version [3].
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Related content
-
Cave Painter
While searching for a method to draw geodata right into the terminal, Mike Schilli discovers the wondrous world of map projections.
-
ReportLab and Panda3D
A game of bingo illustrates how to use the ReportLab toolkit and Panda3D real-time 3D engine.
-
A taste of tiling with X-Tile
-
Amazed
Mazes fascinated even the ancient Greeks. Mike Schilli uses his Go programming skills to create a maze and then efficiently travel through it.
-
Wall Street Monitor
Instead of pulling up a browser to check his investments, Mike Schilli tracks stock prices with the help of a Go program to display graphs in the terminal.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.