Looking back, of the few coding interviews I’ve had so far, the following had stood out to me the most:

  1. A take home problem with no hard deadline, but since it was during mid-terms I gave myself a week to avoid spending too much time on it. It took some effort, but after I sent it I felt relived and talked to a classmate about it. To paraphrase their response: “Why’d you do that? Wouldn’t have been easier to do this instead?”. I knew what he was talking about, and I knew that I could’ve done it, I just didn’t think of it at the time.

Lesson: I focused on the wrong part of the problem. Break up and decompose big problems into smaller ones so you use the right solution.

  1. The test had four parts: A self introduction, two coding challenges, and a closing Q&A about your though process. I was dreading it and kept putting it off, then did it on the last day I could and started late at night. I felt alright after the first challenge, but when I saw the second one my heart sank. I tried my best but I didn’t come close to finishing it. When it came to the closing Q&A I said my mind was else where, had to get up early the next day, didn’t prepare properly, and waited till the last minute. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get an offer.

Lesson: You can only prepare so much and procrastinating only clouds your thoughts. Be proactive, make the time, and get it done. You might not nail it, but at least you’ll know that you didn’t sabotage yourself.

  1. There were two simple coding challenges and five multiple choice questions. After answering the multiple choice questions, I went back to the coding problems. At the time I hadn’t written any code for a while, and after going over the challenges I panicked a bit. They weren’t hard, and I knew they were easy, but in the moment I was struggling to solve them. This made me panic more until I just froze and ended the assessment early.

Lesson: Coding is a perishable skill, so use it or lose it. As much as we like to think of our selves and masterful intellectuals who can apply logical reasoning to solve any problem. When push turns to shove, if you need to code and you can’t code, you’ll lose to someone who can.

Challenges 1. and 2. were early on in my career and was general unexperienced, but 3. showed my dwindling skill set. To make up for this, I’ve decided to do a self-directed “30 Days of Code”. I don’t expect to master coding challenges, but I need to a jump start to sharpen my skills, and set myself on an upward trajectory.