Comment by bryanrasmussen
3 years ago
well I mean there is quite a lot of differences between what the answer to 'what is a hashmap?' can be - is it acceptable to say a hashmap is a bunch of key value pairs where the key is an identifier by which you can look up the value you want - or should it be more in depth - akin to the wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table describing not just what it is but also its place in CS and how it is implemented? If the second it's probable the memorized description would be accurate.
I would expect the basic notion of hashing to decide where to place an element as well as a strategy for dealing with collisions (the basic approach being hashing to a linked list). This didn't require any "memorization" on my part.
Ok fine, so not an in-depth definition, but someone might think you mean an in-depth definition if you don't specify the level you expect is being used (perhaps because they have encountered that situation). I mean if you ask me define a hashmap and how it works for example I might think: "aw damn, this guy wants the low level details, I bet this place sucks to work at!"
Although I would probably ask them to specify the level of detail they want before trying to comply, and then not get the job because I ask a lot of unnecessary questions or something.
I'm not sure what you even mean by an "in-depth definition." What I said is basically constitutive of a hashmap, it's place in the history of CS or whatever is not.
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