Coding is not for the faint-hearted – or, else every interview would result in serious health and well-being complications. But engineers are tough by nature, thanks to the grooming that we’ve received throughout our engineering days. While it is challenging to crack through the coding interviews, the secret mantra for many successful engineers has been to stay cool, positive, and avoid the most basic mistakes.
Here we’ve designed a list to help you avoid the most common mistake during coding interviews.
1. Lack of Clarity
Before you jump into writing code, there’s wisdom in ensuring that you ask the right questions and run through appropriate examples. At times, the key information about the code may be held and may lead to a lack of clarity. A good solution in this scenario is to ask questions. If you do not completely understand your assignment and assume something the result may not meet the interviewer's expectations. Also, you can ask if you can run through a couple of similar examples to get better clarity.
Lesson: Do not assume. Get clarity about your assignment before you jump right into it.
2. Lack of/Poor Communication
Remember your job is to convince the interviewer that you are an expert within your domain and hiring you will be a value add to the company. Your chances of getting the job can get slimmer if you are unable to clearly communicate your expertise on the subject. It is critical that you enhance your communication skills before appearing for the coding interviews.
Lesson: Apart from the technical skills, also enhance your communication skills to win the interviewer’s trust.
3. Lack of Presentation/Readability
The readability of your code during the live coding interviews is also an important aspect of being reviewed by the interviewer. It is important that you add comments when appropriate, and use proper nomenclature for the variables throughout the code. You have teams in an organization, and it is important that in a working setup, the team members easily understand the code that you have written. if your code lacks readability or presentation it will again prove to be a deterrent for you.
Lesson: Ensure that you give a good structure for your code, and provide clear separations to different sections of the code. Steer clear of any code smells.
4. Lack of Honesty
The worst thing you can do is pretend that you know something that you do not. For example, if the interviewer uses a phrase or words that are used by experienced coding experts, maybe there are some of them that you do not understand. Don’t pretend that you do and be honest. Lack of honesty may not leave a good impression in front of the interviewer and also impact the selection process.
Lesson: If you don’t know…you don’t know. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge that. Honesty during the interviews will definitely add to the authenticity.
5. Asking Questions
During the interview, most candidates are shy or reluctant to ask questions. They worry about how their questions will be taken, or if it will result in elimination. Contrary to that, asking questions to the interviewer during the process will help you gain clarity about the expectations and deliver accordingly.
Lesson: Don’t shy away from asking questions. Prepare some smart questions in advance.
The above 5 are some of the most common mistakes that software engineers make in the initial part of their job-hunting journey. Make sure that you do not repeat these mistakes. Do your research about the company, look up some examples, and keep the above and several common mistakes that you can easily avoid during the coding interviews. Many experienced engineers within the AlphaDev community have aced several of these interviews in the past. Reach out to the experts within the community to get the needed help and support in your journey.
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