Scrabble frequency and scores
rrees opened this issue · comments
I wondering whether the Scrabble tile scores and distributions should just be provided as a JSON file for this problem?
In my experience no-one has really taken a different approach to solving this, they all look it up on Wikipedia and create a map.
Things like bag and hand creation are much more varied and interesting.
To balance that, I found it useful to see if people know about data structures. I have encountered candidates who didn't know how to model it, and didn't think about using Maps
I've found this part of the exercise a good way to assess a candidate's pragmatism; the time limitation plays a role in how the bag of tiles is represented. Equally, I've found it useful to see how the bag evolves when code from previous tasks is reused.
As these exercises are used for all engineering levels I think it’s best to not make assumptions about what the candidate knows about data structures, or make decisions on their behalf.
Closing as the comments suggest we find value in allowing candidates to decide how to represent tile scores and distributions.