

Ask HN: Interview advice - ianl

Hello HN,<p>I have recently completed my bachelors degree and have started interviewing, however, I am having a hard time with phone interviews that require you to code.<p>I seem to get very flustered and cannot think properly and therefore under perform greatly during the phone interview+coding stage of the interview process. I get stuck on a question with a mental block and after the interview is often I immediately think of the perfect solution. I'm not use to having what feels like someone breathing behind my back watching me code.<p>Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
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lukesandberg
Practice!

Coding in an interview is unlike any kind of programming you have probably
done so it's only natural to freak out a little. Personally the whole exercise
of writing code not on a computer is bizarre enough on its own!

Find some problems that you might expect to be asked and then actually code
them up on a white board or at least with a pen and paper. Bonus points for
getting a friend to ask you questions.

here's a nice looooong blog post basically saying the same thing:
[http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-
goog...](http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-google.html)

~~~
ianl
Thanks for the link and reading. I do a lot of coding and have many projects I
work on.

Was also curious, do they expect you to know right away, as I usually have a
more iterative style right away. I guess what i'm asking is what are the
protocols or whats established norms for these interviews? No one has ever
really explained to me what they want.

~~~
lukesandberg
Iterative is definitely the way to go, and it's the way you are (generally)
expected to answer a question. If you are asked a question a good first
approach is almost always to describe the simplest/dumbest solution you can
and then iterate to a better one.

The whole point of the coding interview is to ensure that 1. you actually know
how to code and 2. that you have reasonable problem solving skills. By
iteratively approaching the problem you demonstrate your problem solving and
communication skills. Also a good interviewer will usually structure a problem
so that you have to approach it iteratively because they keep adding
restrictions/requirements after each time you solve it.

