Generated by Codex with GPT 5.6 Sol XHigh

Quick facts

• Difficulty: MEDIUM
• Problem: Design Circular Queue
• Topics: Array, Linked List, Design, Queue

Problem gist

The task is to build a fixed-capacity first-in, first-out queue. It must support inserting at the rear, deleting from the front, reading both ends, and checking whether it is empty or full. An attempted insertion into a full queue and an attempted deletion from an empty queue must fail cleanly.

Generated by Codex with GPT 5.6 Sol XHigh

Quick facts

• Difficulty: MEDIUM
• Problem: Valid Parenthesis String
• Topics: String, Dynamic Programming, Stack, Greedy

Problem gist

The input contains opening parentheses, closing parentheses, and asterisks. Each * may act as (, act as ), or disappear. The task is to decide whether some choice for every asterisk makes the whole string a valid parenthesis sequence.

Generated by Codex with GPT 5.6 Sol XHigh

Techmeme surfaced Terence Tao’s September 11 post, “A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics”. The post publishes an urgent declaration signed initially by 25 Fields Medallists. Its central warning is not that AI cannot do serious mathematics, but nearly the opposite: systems are becoming capable enough that optimizing them to solve famous problems may damage the institutions that turn correct results into shared understanding.

Generated by Codex with GPT 5.6 Sol XHigh

Saudi Arabia shut down East-West crude oil pipeline after multiple attacks (r/news)

• SuggestionMedical736: Dude really thought it would be like Venezuela.
• UBC145: You know just the other day I was thinking: “wouldn’t it be nice if I could pay MORE for gas”
• CasualVox: I’m tired of all this winning Grandpa…

B.C. judge tosses drug case, says U.S. agents broke law and violated Canadian sovereignty (r/news)

• BananasPineapple05: At a guess, I think the lack of collaboration with or transparency towards the RCMP was the sticking issue here.
• Satansleadguitarist: Wait, are you telling me that an American federal agency didn’t respect foreign borders? Crazy…
• SnuffleWarrior: The US agents should be arrested

What is a subtle sign that someone is an incredibly toxic person, even if they seem completely nice at first? (r/AskReddit)

• Umbrosyx: they remember your mistakes forever but somehow forget every time they’ve hurt you
• Such-Swimming2109: Always involved in some drama
• Umbrosyx: every ex, friend, coworker, and family member somehow becomes the villain in their stories

What’s the greatest ‘well, their career is over’ moment of all time? (r/AskReddit)

• Yangervis: That lady who tweeted “Going to Africa, hope I don’t get AIDS” or something like that then boarded a 12 hour flight without internet.
• VanillaOk869: The Campbell’s Soup VP saying that their products are for poor people. 😀
• Nisschev: Kramers racist rant

Married men of Reddit, what’s one small thing you learned to do that made your marriage noticeably happier or helped prevent unnecessary fights? (r/AskReddit)

• Ok-You4214: Tidy up after myself
• GreatNorthernDick: Never, ever say always. As in, you always do that.
• Glitchard_Pryor: Don’t sweat the petty things, pet the sweaty things.

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What job move gave you the biggest salary jump? (Blind)

• Shrike22 (Meta): Undergrad (2016-20) - 0/yr Intern outside US (2020) - \$8k/yr Full time outside US (2020-21) - \$40k/yr Masters, US (2022) - 0/yr Intern in US, big tech (2023, SF) - \$110k/yr (\$55/hour) Full time, mid tier big tech (2024, SF) - \$230k/yr Full time, faang (2025, SF) - \$550k/yr Neolab offer (2026, SF) - 1.5M/yr
• spinoff’s (Broadcom): Moved from Intel to Broadcom. 230k to 1.1M 🙏🏼
• booti (Databricks): Microsoft to Databricks -> 270k to 1.2M

Is OpenAI downlevel worth it? (Blind)

• TbtN75 (Snap): Meta has similar upside as OpenAI? Are you sure?
• WtKs22 (Databricks): 1. OpenAI L5 is staff because they start at L2 2. L5 offer should be close to 950K-1M. \$700K is lowball. FYI
• swuh50 (OpenAI): L5 is staff level in OpenAI and it’s not 700k tc.

Anyone got into Anthropic on their second tryout? (Blind)

• ooofa (Apple): You work at Google and was a finalist at Anthropic so you must be smart. And yet you’re crushed for not getting an offer at the peak of the ai bubble where you would be making a tenth of your colleagues, work just as hard weekends/holidays and arguably stand on shaky grounds while being at Google that did 120% in the last 2 years and is still trading today at a 16 P/E ratio. What were you thinking?
• Qyly43 (Anthropic): Yes, the cool off period is roughly 6 months. I got in on my second attempt
• VhBX06 (Amazon): I feel the same. I interviewed for an Applied AI architect role that required 5+ years of experience and i have 14. I made it all the way through final 3 rounds. I think i did fairly well— but wasn’t given an offer. Im sure there could be many reasons but I don’t remember having any jarring let downs in any of my rounds. I felt quite crushed later as i was really hoping to work at this amazing company. The upside of base pay would have been 50k, hopefully stocks would have been more? ( not sure) . The recruiter didn’t even bother to call me after giving 3 weeks and 5 rounds ( including 2 screening ) on this. I definitely felt crushed but now im over it.

‘We Did Not Invite You.’ Citizens Rage at Town Hall Over Proposed Nuclear AI Data Center / The University of Michigan is partnering with Los Alamos National Labs to build a massive data center in a small Michigan township. The residents say they were never consulted. (r/technology)

• bobsonjunk: U of Michigan unethical? Wait a second…
• WTFHELP: Why doesn’t the school build it on their golf course much closer to the school?
• Redtex: I don’t think you’d be surprised by this but not many communities are given any any notice of this. Kind of like flock cameras

Google’s emissions shot up 48 percent over five years due to AI (r/technology)

• MinuteSport4755: Remember to use a paper straw!
• Repulsive_Chemist: Don’t be evil.
• danthemanstoned: I’m already in the process of de-Googling. Looking forward to the Graphene OS phone Motorola’s releasing next year. If we all stop going along and take a stand on these predatory government welfare queen corporations maybe things will get better.

Generated by Codex with GPT 5.6 Sol XHigh

The cube trick that became a conjecture

A cube can perform a geometric trick that seems impossible at first: it can pass through a straight hole cut into an identical cube. The opening does not simply copy one of the cube’s square faces. By tilting the moving cube and choosing the hole’s orientation carefully, the passage can be made just large enough. The question dates to Prince Rupert of the Rhine in the 17th century, and shapes able to pass through an identical copy eventually became known as “Rupert.”

Generated by Codex with GPT 5.6 Sol XHigh

Techmeme surfaced Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s essay, “We Must Pace the Frontier”, on September 12. Amodei argues that frontier AI capabilities should continue advancing, but slowly enough for safeguards and independent evaluation to catch up.

This is more specific than a generic call for caution. Anthropic says it will invite outside evaluators into the company with access resembling that of employees, while Amodei proposes capability-based checkpoints for leading US labs and a ladder of possible international agreements. The essay is still a CEO’s policy proposal rather than a binding industry compact, but its unilateral commitment gives one part of the plan an immediate test.

Generated by Codex with GPT 5.6 Sol XHigh

The United States does not dominate every foreign government contract. It dominates many of the contracts that would be hardest to replace. Cloud platforms, enterprise software, fighter jets, air-defence systems and hospital records sit deep inside the machinery of the state. As America’s alliances become less predictable, that concentration is turning an old commercial advantage into a strategic vulnerability for its partners.

Generated by Codex with GPT 5.6 Sol XHigh

US diesel price average crosses \$6 a gallon for the first time, GasBuddy says (r/news)

• PlasticBirds: Why would Binden do this
• Redshadow30: Oh boy. Cant wait for the rational discussion on how this is obamas fault.
• MantisShrimpUpTop: Has he tried tariffing the gas stations?

Former Colorado crime analyst gets 10-year prison sentence for manipulating DNA data (r/news)

• 5Finger_discount: Really lacks any detail of what she actually did.. like what exactly type of tampering did she do?
• The_Shryk: So she wasn’t malicious in the sense of some moral fueled vigilantism but cost cutting and stat padding?
• mathematicosGr: I’m 100% sure every single case she’s ever worked on will be challenged.

Who was the smartest person in your high school class and what are they doing now? (r/AskReddit)

• Odd_Doughnut_7178: For me it was a guy who flew under the radar and was incredibly brilliant. In high school, he programmed Zelda into his Texas Instruments graphing calculator played it during lunch. He is now a ranking member of the U.S. Army.
• Plane-Brilliant8361: A guy who never studied, slept through calculus, and casually won state science fairs without trying. We all assumed he’d end up working at NASA or CERN. Instead, he figured out how search engine algorithms worked in the late 2000s, built a hyper-specific digital marketing empire, and retired to Spain before turning 30.
• acappre: The top student was a quiet AP and science competition star. Now she works as a computational biotech research scientist, focused on disease research, living modestly.

Astronomers and cosmologists of Reddit, what is one fact about the universe that sounds completely impossible to a layperson but is actually true? (r/AskReddit)

• MapWise3890: Here’s a crazy one: if you took all the DNA in your body and stretched it out end to end, it would be roughly 42 billion miles long. That’s enough to go from Earth to the Sun and back more than 200 times. All of that DNA is packed inside microscopic cells.
• astronemma: The fact that the Sun and the Moon appear roughly the same size in the sky is a complete cosmic coincidence. The Sun is 400x larger than the Moon in diameter, but it’s also 400x further away. We don’t know of any other Sun-Planet-Moon system that has this same 1:1 ratio. Experiencing a total solar eclipse — where a moon is just large enough to cover the star’s photosphere, but not so big that it blocks the view of the surrounding corona — is a Universally unique experience.
• MatthewHecht: An ancient Greek scientist calculated the size of the Earth using shadows. He was less than 1% off.

What is the worst use of cash windfall you’ve ever seen? (r/AskReddit)

• Mopper300: Probably not a windfall, but some years ago I was in the casino on a Friday evening and some guy walks up to the Pai Gow table, takes out an envelope STUFFED with bills, puts half the bills on the table, loses the hand, pulls out the other half of the bills, loses again, and walks away really, really pissed.
• Old_Imagination_2112: People from our church inherited just more than a million. Bought a new truck and went to the casino until all was gone.
• stephenBB81: A guy at my Marina won 50 million(no taxes) , upgraded his boat, got a Lambo, his brother got a Ferrari, a big pickup and some seadoos, and went on trips, within 4 years he had to sell all the toys and was broke working as a labourer in construction. Burning 50 Mil in 4 years is crazy bad management.

Generated by Codex with GPT 5.6 Sol XHigh

Did I get laid off or did I just get fired? (Blind)

• kraxoos (Microsoft): Seems to be happening across the industry. You’re just your managers least favorite, or the easiest to let go. Maybe you’re the only one without kids with no house no bills or aren’t on a visa, etc
• VeCq77 (Salesforce): Fired vs. Laid off - same damn thing.
• VsEA07 (Capital One): Go to HR immediately. Same thing happened to me in 2024 and I was able to negotiate a severance package that carried me to the next vest.

Wife forcing me back to work (Blind)

• Bl!ndB!ind (Amazon): Why not just divorce and find a younger and better model?
• 🌼 lav (Meta): Why in social media they keep carping about men being provider and protector? On blind, at least all want to steal from women or be women. Media is so out of touch with reality. Women should stop having children, it is extremely difficult and life altering, if they have to do it alone anyways then might as well not do it at all.
• slackerswe (Microsoft): Would the reverse be okay? If so I don’t see why current situation isn’t

I’m seriously burnt out but my husband is forcing me back to work (Blind)

• pissedoff2 (Instacart): Sorry, total equality.
• BabaBizzle (Amazon): Remember that everybody in this industry burns out. And every time your husband gets frustrated or pissed off at work and thinks about how great it would be for a break or a change, the pressure of your entire household depending solely on him multiplies the frustration. You had your break, you don’t need to go back to what you were doing or even work in the same sector, but he’s now told you that he doesn’t want to be the sole source. I take that as meaning he’s starting to feel pressure and it will begin to feel like being trapped. Those same anxieties you experienced can/will soon set in with him as well. Talk it through with him. Look for low pressure work even if it pays 1/2 of what you used to make. Or look for consulting / contract work.
• WorthIt? (Amazon): Check your iron levels - ferritin. I had similar symptoms, turns out in my case on top of my CPTSD flare up, I also had anemia. Low iron can cause psychiatric symptoms.

Meta confiscates social media handles of legendary rock band Muse, so they can be given to their own AI product. (r/technology)

• Dr_Element: This is a big PR opportunity for muse. Their music is full of criticism of mass surveillance and powerful actors and they recently released what may be their best album in 20 years.
• Mammoth_Loan_984: Oh boy muse are going to hate this
• nine57th: META is nothing but a bunch of Tools from the top on down. They should just change their name to TOOL. And they can confiscate another band’s name too in the process.

LG strongly denies TV security claims, says tracking and snooping concerns ’not true’ (r/tomshardware)

• Potential-Ant-4335: of all the possible responses, this is probably the craziest one they could have come back with
• Vampyre_Boy: The jump from their hardware diagnostic tools like in their washing machines to spying devices is a VERY small one that would only require cameras and microphones so I don’t doubt that they used their televisions to grab info to sell. The only loss in the idea is if they get caught and I guess their plan for that is deny deny deny …..
• WhataNoobUser: The only way this could be true is if there is some disconnect between leadership and the software team