what to do during a live coding phone interview if you dont know how to solve the question?

New / Eng
javaislife

New Eng

PRE
Google
javaislife
Jul 23, 2019 20 Comments

im still trying to get good at leetcode and have a live coding phone interview coming up not 100% prepared.

ill know within 6 seconds if i can solve the question or not.

what should i say if i know forsure i cant solve the question ? should i just be honest and say i have no idea how to solve this question?

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TOP 20 Comments
  • Google
    Eibwlwuw78

    Go to company page Google

    Eibwlwuw78
    They want to hear your thought process, and a good interviewer will give you hints if you get truly stuck (though that will probably detract from your rating.) Start talking through the problem as much as you can - see if thereโ€™s another problem you can compare it to, point out how you might break it down into smaller problems, identify the areas youโ€™re going to get stuck, etc. There should never be a problem where you have literally nothing to say.
    Jul 23, 2019 1
  • Box
    ๐Ÿ“ฆ box

    Go to company page Box

    ๐Ÿ“ฆ box
    Never give up during an interview - especially not after 6 seconds!!

    Ask clarifying questions if youโ€™re stuck and speak out loud so the interviewer can guide you in the right direction
    Jul 23, 2019 1
  • Paychex
    abracdbra

    Go to company page Paychex

    abracdbra
    Google it
    Jul 23, 2019 4
    • Pearson / Eng
      KHYR71

      Go to company page Pearson Eng

      PRE
      Apple
      KHYR71
      Right!
      Jul 23, 2019
    • New
      NFui36

      New

      NFui36
      Pretty hard to do without them noticing. Youโ€™d need a completely silent keyboard or iPad to google on. Even then I wouldnโ€™t recommend to try this. Just try your hardest and believe in the studying youโ€™ve done.
      Jul 23, 2019
  • Amazon
    ?๐Ÿค”

    Go to company page Amazon

    ?๐Ÿค”
    "pass"
    "next question"
    Jul 23, 2019 1
  • What kind of questions do you think you can solve and what kind of questions are you apprehensive about?
    Jul 23, 2019 3
    • New
      NFui36

      New

      NFui36
      Those two might be the most commonly used algorithms in onsites. You gotta get those down before doing more phone interviews.
      Jul 23, 2019
    • Ok, so I would recommend that you first work on understanding BFS and then move to DFS. These are super important for all graph problems.
      One of the ways I recommend that college students prepare is:
      1. Walk through BFS on a Binary tree first by hand. Work out what the queue looks like if youโ€™re using an iterative approach or the stack looks like with a recursive approach
      2. Then write the code. Write the code again and again!
      3. Make sure you really understand tree traversals. Work out examples by hand
      4. Write the code.
      5. Then start with graphs, again with BFS first
      6 then do DFS with graphs
      Draw the graphs, write down the adjacency list or matrix by hand
      Walk through examples.
      If you spend a couple days on this youโ€™ll definitely be in a better position
      Jul 23, 2019