> I've never written a linked list. Guilty as charged. Java has a LinkedList class and I've never bothered to look at the implementation nor have I ever been curious enough to (re)write one from scratch.
Good! You're right: the JDK's implementation is perfectly acceptable, and you'd be crazy to write your own. I certainly haven't, either.
But if you have any CS education, I'll bet you know what a linked list is at a high level. And I can probably verbally walk you through turning that into a "spec" that's good enough for a basic whiteboard implementation of one that supports a couple of basic operations. It's (hopefully) just another fizzbuzz: a simple problem to demonstrate that you can code something/anything. The overwhelming majority of applicants can't.
Good! You're right: the JDK's implementation is perfectly acceptable, and you'd be crazy to write your own. I certainly haven't, either.
But if you have any CS education, I'll bet you know what a linked list is at a high level. And I can probably verbally walk you through turning that into a "spec" that's good enough for a basic whiteboard implementation of one that supports a couple of basic operations. It's (hopefully) just another fizzbuzz: a simple problem to demonstrate that you can code something/anything. The overwhelming majority of applicants can't.