An attempt of a framework for solving whiteboarding/Leetcode problems is helpful, and it should always invite us to ask what computer science pedagogy is missing. Any CS program worth its salt includes data structures and algorithms courses- they are simply fundamental elements of the discipline.
And yet, why are these interviews so difficult? I don't think it's simply an issue of many people having gone through these programs and failing to absorb or retain the material. Neither do I think there is a severe mismatch in the material covered and the interviews. Yes, some interview questions are awfully close to logic puzzles - having to know the two pointer trick for detecting cyclic graphs, what CS program covers that industry-specific technique? - but others are fundamental applications of trees, graphs, dynamic programming, etc.
Could it just be that academic CS doesn't approach solving problems in the same way as these interviews do? Are there meta-problem solving techniques that these courses simply don't cover? Heuristics that must be applied when one approaches a general problem before the topic is narrowed down? "Ah this involves a tree, ah this requires sorting, ah we should use a hash table?"
And yet, why are these interviews so difficult? I don't think it's simply an issue of many people having gone through these programs and failing to absorb or retain the material. Neither do I think there is a severe mismatch in the material covered and the interviews. Yes, some interview questions are awfully close to logic puzzles - having to know the two pointer trick for detecting cyclic graphs, what CS program covers that industry-specific technique? - but others are fundamental applications of trees, graphs, dynamic programming, etc.
Could it just be that academic CS doesn't approach solving problems in the same way as these interviews do? Are there meta-problem solving techniques that these courses simply don't cover? Heuristics that must be applied when one approaches a general problem before the topic is narrowed down? "Ah this involves a tree, ah this requires sorting, ah we should use a hash table?"