My interview failure story is an unusual one. Leetcode contest rank ~2200 (guardian badge), I solved around 800 problems over a couple of years. I appeared for Meta, G and Coinbase till now. I can hit the harder ones out of the park, but no one asks me tricky graph/DP/math/bitmask/geometry/backtracking at all. I keep failing all interviews due to not being patient when asked to solve a laborious LC medium type problem. I feel even more demotivated after my most recent Coinbase phone-screen failure where they gave me another laborious medium problem which I didn't feel motivated/patient enough to solve. At Meta and G, I was atleast able to get to the onsite. Coinbase was a disaster. I feel a mental barrier inside me makes me see some problems as below me. I subconsciously don't want to spend even an iota of effort solving such problems, and am now in a tricky position. I want to move after 7 yoe and peanut TC but don't know whether I will be able to go anywhere with this attitude. I need help. Did anyone ever feel this way? TC: 220k, 7 yoe
so u didn’t want it in the moment. what u expect others to help w/ lol? if u didn’t want it then u didn’t want it.
I am fighting my mental issues and not able to win.
Sounds like you are burned out. Take a break from interviews.
It sounds like you’re just memorizing tricks/patterns for the hards, then when you’re presented a seemingly more “design-oriented” medium you just panic?
Who doesn’t memorize patterns? Btw do you mean LLD problems?
Oh I totally do, I think there’s more to it than just memorization. What part of the mediums do you get impatient? Is it the algo break down in the start? If it’s a tedious question, I’m guessing there is shaping of data and handling between different DS, are you not flushing out your structures enough? I’m curious
Do you talk through the problem step by step or just jump in without thinking out loud? Sounds like you have the knowledge, but need to do practice interviews with people to get comfortable with the process. Having the knowledge and having interview skills are two different things. It sounds like you've only practiced skills and ignored the other. You need both.
Yes this is very imp. I lack this too. But I am patient now. I talk my logic first and also make it a habit to talk while you code too
Don’t worry about these failures, even if you passed those you’d have failed the behavioural interviews. You sound like the worst person in a team with whom nobody wants to work with. First work on your attitude and character. You are nobody and don’t matter.
Thanks for making me feel better. LC is enough to drain you mentally. Having mental health issues due to bad work env and constant failure in interviews makes you unfit to be a team player. Today I learnt. My "Googleyness round" feedback at G was good btw (as per my recruiter).
@sophos what a jackass!
OP, I have some similar problem. Usually when I get the approach to a problem right I mess up during the coding part. In my mind finding the approach to a problem is the main and the hardest objective so I subconsciously don’t put enough effort on the implementation part. I made this mistake during my last Google interview where I found the approach to a do DP problem quickly but made a logical error while implementing it. Could not catch it while doing a dry run as well. I think this might cost me a google offer.
What you said describes my issue as well. How are you planning to fix it? At this point, I already have ample LC practice. I feel it's just about the mindset. What's a good way to handle this situation?
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What exactly is your problem ? Do you copy paste lc code ? And don’t have mind to solve already solved problem ?
I never copy paste code. I don’t think you can copy paste LC contest solutions and get a good rank because the hard ones are quite tough and not easily searchable. Also at this level, rank depends on time taken to solve. I don’t think you can search solutions and copy paste consistently. Leetcode contests would become irrelevant in no time if that were the case.