Comment by almost_usual
1 day ago
It takes a lot of practice and is a skill in itself. Most interviewers would fail a similar live coding exercise if they interviewed at another company without practice.
The goal is to keep yourself grounded and focus on the problem at hand. Practicing under these circumstances of course makes it easier.
This is why I start with something very simple. If I detect the candidate is getting paralyzed with nerves, I'll reassure them and give little hints to help bring them out of it. After successfully completing a simple exercise, they usually feel more confident and relaxed. Only then will I give them a more challenging problem, with the caveat that I'm mostly interested in seeing how they might approach the problem and what things they can tell me about it. If they solve it, great. If they don't, did they show an ability to reason about the problem well, or identify key aspects of the problem that make it challenging? Can they communicate their thoughts as they think about it?
Yes I think this is worth emphasizing: Just as firefighters are’t interviewed by sending them into a burning building, and aspiring public speakers don’t walk onstage at TED but join groups like Toastmasters, you can train toward performing better in live coding interviews.
> you can train toward performing better in live coding interviews.
I have no doubt that you can. But how much time do I want to waste on this kind of training? Personally, I don't need to do these kinds of interviews anymore because I decided I could retire instead. I suppose if I were in my 20s, 30s or 40s I'd have to "waste" time training to interview (and let's be honest, it could take a lot of time) - or just decide to change to another industry.