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I'm still a newbie coder so I don't really have a full perspective on the industry yet. What exactly are these sites like HackerRank, and Sphere Online Judge for in the scope of the industry and does everyone use them? Do most professional developers participate in these types of algorithm competition and ranks or is it mainly a niche crowd?
I ask because while I am new and have mainly been focusing on my lessons, textbooks, and creating applications of my own, there is an appeal to these sites as well... But I have a hard time sticking with them because it is more appealing to me to create a product that does something as opposed to figuring out how many tree branches it would take to build the Great Wall of China and etc... And I tend to base most of my work around producing a product or gaining skills and education that will allow me to produce a product (I want to be a professional soon).
However, I do understand that in the course of big applications, algorithms like this are needed to solve problems and these sites must exercise the portion of the brain that is needed to create solutions that solve these problems. What is the general consensus on these "hacker games"/puzzles types of websites? Should I participate? Why or why not?
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why worries, just do for fun
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I doubt that any potential employer would be impressed that you take part, so if you want to do it for fun, go ahead.
TheOnlyRealTodd wrote: it is more appealing to me to create a product that does something
That will be of interest to potential employers, so definitely do that, whether you do the puzzle thing or not.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Some people like puzzles generally - hence the popularity of the CCC and FSOW of the day here as well.
Others don't. :shrug:
And there are some who think that "I am n-th on this coding puzzle site" will impress interviewers (it won't), so they post "help me solve this" in QA...
Will they help you get a job? No, probably not directly. Will they make you think about algorithms, analyse problems, and generally make you a better coder? Maybe, a little. They are generally byte size problems that need a reasonable amount of thinking about - which is generally the same kind of situation as you do get in "programming tests" in interviews: so there may be some point to trying some of them just to "get used" to the situation.
If you enjoy them, do them. If you don't, don't. It probably won't make any difference to your career either way! 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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You will get a great deal more benefit doing exactly what you are doing, creating stuff and exploring the languages/frameworks.
If you find doing puzzles entertaining then you will get some value from them, entertainment value! Personally I have enough puzzles deciphering my users requirements and converting that into a solution!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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I'd pretty much echo what everyone else has said i.e. do them for fun if you wish but you'll learn far more from writing code that relates to the real world.
In some cases, though, I'd think they can be somewhat negative - "code golf" in particular (writing the shortest possible code to perform a task, usually in an esoteric programming language) almost seems designed to embed bad habits and should probably be avoided.
If I were looking to employ someone, well written code performing a relatively simple task would be of far more interest to me than badly written code doing something spectacularly clever.
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I have solved the Da Vinci Code, but it did not help getting a job.
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Apparently, the owner of a major torrent site has been arrested in continental Europe at the demand of US police, who in turn are being used as jackboots in a matter of civil law.
How on Earth are they getting away with this abuse of both national and international law?
If they have a civil issue with the guy, they take him to court at their own expense, not misuse millions of tax money.
So much heavy-handed cr@p is going on that I'm beginning not to give a damn about the (civil) copyright issues, any more. If worse abuses of the law are used in response to lesser ones, then it's time to start using the law properly, and arrest All abusers involved.
BTW: This ain't politics; it's law -- law that also involves software licensing.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Copyright infringement can fall under civil and/or criminal law in most jurisdictions. Copyright infringement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[^] If done on an industrial scale it is most often criminal. From the link: "The ACTA trade agreement, signed in May 2011 by the United States, Japan, and the EU, requires that its parties add criminal penalties, including incarceration and fines, for copyright and trademark infringement, and obligated the parties to actively police for infringement."
When nation states who don't respect copyright are the culprits and are also major trading partners they get away scot free.
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
modified 25-Jul-16 1:36am.
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pwasser wrote: May 2011
So it's a newly made-up law, invented by hollywood/sony/etc, that allows them to chase after people using tax money, rather than their own.
If that's not an even worse abuse of the law, then I don't know what is -- Hell, it's downright r@pe.
"Of the people, by the people, for the people" my @rse. Did the people demand this law, or was it just a few self-interested corporations (who can't even prove that the whole torrent thing costs them a penny) looking to make money for nothing?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: invented by hollywood/sony/etc
and Apple, Microsoft, Pfizer, Monsanto, GM &etc.
I have certainly felt ripped of at times by quite predatory practices of copyright owners (Don't get me started on books and music). However is the alternative open slather and nobody is able to protect their intellectual property?
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
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pwasser wrote: However is the alternative open slather and nobody is able to protect their intellectual property?
The alternative would be to approach the problem intelligently, and not leap at it, threatening hellfire and damnation, as a way to gain unearned revenue.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: So it's a newly made-up law, invented by hollywood/sony/etc, that allows them to chase after people using tax money, rather than their own.
and many other morons
Mark_Wallace wrote: id the people demand this law, or was it just a few self-interested corporations (who can't even prove that the whole torrent thing costs them a penny) looking to make money for nothing?
I woul dbet for the second option.
In Spain is less penalty to steal up to 398 € of physical multimedia (hardware / Music CDs and so on) in a store, than download a single song from the internet.
... It is less or same penalty to physically attack someone and send him to the hospital than to download a film of the internet.
And I say... then lets go and grab some of those !"$§ %$"!/!$ and beat them down, at the end, they don't see it as severe..
Ok... I think I will stop before it reaches soapbox levels
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Nelek wrote: In Spain is less penalty to steal up to 398 € of physical multimedia (hardware / Music CDs and so on) in a store, than download a single song from the internet.
... It is less or same penalty to physically attack someone and send him to the hospital than to download a film of the internet.
That says it all.
When did transient entertainment (which they design to be as transient as possible, so that they can keep raking the bucks in with even more transient cr@p) become more important than everything else, including Law, International Law, and democratic rights?
I mean, we're not talking about great works of art, here; we're talking pop, rap, soap operas, sitcoms, and ten-a-penny cop shows.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Nelek wrote: In Spain is less penalty to steal up to 398 € of physical multimedia (hardware / Music CDs and so on) in a store, than download a single song from the internet.
... It is less or same penalty to physically attack someone and send him to the hospital than to download a film of the internet.
So then the solution is obvious. Instead of downloading a song or movie illegally, just find the CEO of the company that owns the copyright and nail them over the shoulders with a metal folding chair.
Seems the whole situation would resolve itself in a matter of weeks...
(Considered marking this as a joke, but I find that I'm at least 51% serious about the folding chair.)
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I already said it myself
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Indeed you did, only in different words.
I personally prefer the metal folding chair. 
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DMCA violations in the US are a criminal law matter; I may not like that; I may protest that, but, it is ... the law. There have been, and there are now, serious legal challenges in the US Courts to DMCA [^].
As for extradition, talk to Assange about that.
«There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you don’t want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.» Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008
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How many successful prosecutions have they had applying this Act? Many CP articles would seem to be abetting a breach of this law.
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
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BillWoodruff wrote: talk to Assange about that
Except that the US legal/copyright system seems to be acting like a rogue bull I'd vote to let the US extradite him, we certainly don't want him back!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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BillWoodruff wrote: DMCA violations in the US are a criminal law matter
But sexually assaulting children isn't.
Hmm. Could there possibly be a connection between the two?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Copyright laws are the worst around.
Somehow the creative industry is very uncreative in marketing their products and making money from it (or at least not enough, so they think) so they simply restrict usage, assume everyone is a pirate, and make you pay even if you don't use their product (like when you buy a USB storage device or a disc writer). I guess they have a big lobby to get such idiotic laws to pass.
Then they make it worth your while to download movies because you don't have to watch their anti-piracy propaganda that comes with the legit disc.
I really hate BUMA/STEMRA, Brein, and all these other money grabbing morons. In the end they get the money that copyright owners miss out of.
This says it all I think (sorry, Dutchies only).[^] 
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Sander Rossel wrote: the creative industry is very uncreative in marketing their products and making money from it
That's exactly the point.
They spend gazillions on poor marketing, and right now are spending millions of taxpayers' money on their little spat, but they're perfectly happy to rake in the money that "piracy" gives them by marketing their garbage better than they ever could.
Case in point: a show called "Braindead" has become remarkably popular in Asia, even though not a penny has been spent distributing it. The previously unknown (in Asia) stars and makers of the show are now stars to a market more than three times the population of the US, and Asia will lap up anything involving them.
Do they:
a. Work with this, to push more of their material through similar channels, and find ways to monetise it quicker?
b. Come up with wild claims and demands for ridiculous amounts of money?
(Note that a. would be the smart move, and b. the moronic one.)
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: (Note that a. would be the smart move, and b. the moronic one.)
You clearly don't work in the copyright industry then
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Gah, I hate copyright laws. All I want is for a thousand people to make a multi-million pound movie and for me to watch it for free, is that too much to ask? I mean, you work for free, right?, so why shouldn't people in the entertainment industry? I'm sure, like the rest of us, when you have finished coding your project you usually don't get paid for the work you have done because someone has simply copied and distribute it themselves.
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