Comment by ajabhish
1 day ago
I’ve seen this “stress ≠ skill” gap play out again and again. The Microsoft study the OP cites is brutal. Yet most prep advice (“just grind LeetCode”) still ignores the cortisol factor.
One thing that’s helped me, as both an occasional interviewer and a frequent interviewee, is recreating the stress loop on my own terms. Friends rarely push hard enough, and a paid coach is $150+ an hour. Lately I’ve been working on a little side-project Tough Tongue AI: a voice-driven agent that drops you into a live code editor, throws follow-up questions, even interrupts when you go off-road, then gives a feedback at end. It’s not magic, but after a few sessions the “somebody’s watching me” adrenaline spike starts to feel familiar.
If live coding interviews are here to stay, a repeatable way to train the physiological side of the test, not just the algorithms would be helpful!
one thing that helps me psychologically is not caring. Or tricking myself into not caring.
I learned this in my 20’s. I made it to about 10 different on site interviews over a summer, and was totally burnt out. I was spending hours prepping before each interview, and really putting in the effort! At the last minute a company tried to squeeze me in for an interview before a vacation i had planned. I reluctantly agreed, and i completely winged it. Zero prep, i showed up ready to (mentally) go on vacation lol. Guess what? I aced most of the interview and ended up getting an offer 3 days later.
Of all the interviews i performed the best when i went in with 0 expectations and 0 stress on myself. That’s when it clicked for me.
Easier said than done though. It’s not always easy to get into that mindset.
One of the best tools to learn.