What do you think is more important in coding rounds?

IBM / Eng
dlVF51

Go to company page IBM Eng

dlVF51
Feb 13, 2021 3 Comments

Haven't done a crazy load of LC myself but I feel like I have a decent understanding of algo/DS and am pretty comfortable with coding rounds. I usually can grasp the right idea immediately and effectively exchange my thoughts with the interviewer.

My problem is that I struggle implementing my thoughts in a clean, bug-free manner under interview pressure. When that happens, I tell them that I know I'm not writing it in the most elegant manner and will try to improve if I have time left, which might not always be the case.

I know practice makes perfect. But just curious, do you think this is a big red flag comparing to other problems like not able to pick the right algo/DS or doesn't understand how certain DS work?

#swe #engineering

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TOP 3 Comments
  • Boeing
    ehiednbo

    Go to company page Boeing

    ehiednbo
    Unfortunately you’ve really got to do both to get most offers, especially these days. Doing a crazy amount of leetcode helps with both, you start to see patterns in the answers and knocking out a ton will actually help you translate the algorithm to code in an interview better. The good news is that since you get the algorithm right away, you just have to focus on improving your skills on translating that into code.
    Feb 13, 2021 0
  • Oracle
    ktfbd46

    Go to company page Oracle

    ktfbd46
    Completing the problem at any level is an important start. Many candidates I interview stress about perfection and efficiency such that they never even complete at the most basic level.
    Feb 13, 2021 0
  • Twitter
    oksoway

    Go to company page Twitter

    oksoway
    It matters how you present yourself too. Don't say 'i know this isn't good code but I'll try to improve it later if I can't. Part of being a good engineer is doing things the right way from the beginning, because in reality you often times aren't able to prioritize cycles to come back and improve things. I can't tell my boss oh yeah I know we're implementing this feature terrible but we'll come back and make it better later. Using a less efficient algorithm is fine, but you should be covering edge cases and using clean code from the beginning. If you don't approach the problem thinking about edge cases then it can mess up your code because that might impact the entire design which isn't easy to alter at the end
    Feb 13, 2021 0