DEV Community

Daniel
Daniel

Posted on

VR Coding Mock Interview - Longest substring w.o repeating characters

Check out the video

Verdict: No Hire Score: 2/5

The candidate is a bright and well-spoken engineer that was able to work through the problem, but only after several hints. The number of hints paired with the lack of confidence around runtime analysis lead this to be a no hire!

Advice
The candidate should add some more structure to how he approaches interview problems. He has a natural intuition that is helping him get 60% of the way there, but adding some more structure to his interviews with an improved confidence around runtime analysis would get him across the finish line!

A helpful structure for solving DSA problems: bit.ly/3JDuSjV

Do you have any advice for the candidate? Let us know in the comments.

Rating Coding: 4 Communication: 3 Problem Solving: 2 Inspection: 2 Review: 1

What Went Well

Was able to code quickly
Able to articulate his ideas
Started by writing examples and reasoning through them
Well spoken
What Needs Improvement

improve confidence on Big O analysis.
Had issues identifying the sliding window pattern that leads to the optimal solution
Additional investigation out of the gate. Asking questions about input/output would help
The candidate went silent at times when thinking. I had to ask to see what was going on in their head
Didn't review his code
0:00 Inspection 4:57 Strategy 30:44 Coding 35:45 Didn't review

Studying for programming interviews? Join Hackpack

Top comments (1)

Collapse
 
kristyovchar profile image
Kristy Ovchar

Thanks for the helpful information, I got some help from the guys at servreality.com/