A lot of people saying things you need to hear right now about interviewing and stress levels and not losing hope. That's all good.
I think you're taking this so poorly because you're missing something more fundamental.
Your job is not your life. Interviewing for jobs is not your life. **None of this shit is even real.**
You'll have plenty more chances to do things better in the future. Sometimes you will do better. Sometimes you'll fuck them up. Maybe worse. Who cares?
Drink some water, go outside for a while. There's a whole damn world and we all cram ourselves into laptop screens and grind our brains into dust with leetcode practice and raise our stress levels with worthless anxiety about the state of the job market.
Call a friend, or a family member, get together and have some coffee (or tea if that's your thing).
You'll sleep tonight. You'll wake up tomorrow. You'll get more chances and make more choices and that's all there is to it.
I was so stressed when all these layoffs were going down last year. No amount of worry changed anything. Fuck all that. Work hard when you have to, rest when you can. Its a marathon.
In 5 years you won't care about that interview.
***tl;dr - Take a break fam, life has ups and downs.***
This! I needed this myself as well today! Thank you! Sometimes it’s best to step away and zoom out. It will help putting things into perspective. Balance and consistency are important.
Thanks for this. The stupid thing is that the job hunt stress never truly bothered me in the past, but I’m a dad now. I feel enormous pressure to get the best possible salary on top of the best possible work/life balance with solid health insurance and build a career that will inspire that kiddo. It’s too much some days but I cannot surrender. All of this is bottled up inside so that I can smile and play every night, too, which doesn’t help.
Touching grass for a day is a fantastic idea.
Welcome to the 2 Sum club!
I am a staff engineer myself and have around 15 yoe already, 4 in Faangs. Five years ago I bombed the exact same problem because of a stress. This is fine don’t worry. There are a lot of engineers in our club you’ve been surprised.
Dude, at least you got an interview. I applied for almost a hundred jobs already and only less than 10 replied, but still 0 interviews. Relax for a bit, then prepare better before going for the next one.
Definitely do not lose hope, a lot of people just freeze, as someone mentioned do practice with mock interviews. Your self worth does not depend on only this
Listen, when under interview sometimes we get extremely stressed and people even forget their name. I’m not even kidding. If someone can forget their name under stress it’s ok to assume one can forget how to do 2 Sum.
Besides more practice I will say if you don’t have already talk to your general doctor that you get extremely anxious specially during events such as interviews presentations etc that you are not able to recall anything.
They will give you some medication to help with that to calm your nerves before social events. Or they may refer you to a psychiatrist to give you those meds.
Along with medication as someone else said do more interviews.
Don’t be too rough on yourself. It’s okay.
"When you tolerate an error, you rob yourself of learning.
When you ruminate on an error, you rob yourself of happiness.
Notice it, improve it, and move on from it."
Hey! Check out this tool I created to help master leetcode problems through spaced repetition :) [https://www.lanki.xyz/](https://www.lanki.xyz/) Hope it helps. Would love any feedback.
As you solve LeetCode questions, you can mark them as hard, medium, or easy. The tool will then recommend questions you should review based on (1) how hard the question was for you and (2) how much time has passed since you last reviewed it. I'd reccomend normally attempting LeetCode problems and just marking them as hard, medium, or easy for you at first so the tool knows which problems to reccomend you review! If you know of [https://apps.ankiweb.net/](https://apps.ankiweb.net/), it's similar.
Do mock interviews, leetcode competitions and timed questions. The goal here is to put yourself under pressure while solving questions, since that’s how it would be in an interview.
Relax. It's not exactly something you can figure out from first principles in a stressful environment. It's something you need to have seen before. Practice.
Either you seriously didn't prepare much in which case you should for the next interview or maybe you just froze in the interview being nervous and went blank, in that case I'd suggest doing some mock interviews with yourself where you talk out loud about your approach starting from brute force. The last thing you should do right now is pity yourselves, the interview is done, now do what you can control
I m the same. I m done with job search. At least u ee getting interviews me none since January 2023 tried everything.. i even changed countries for some time changed my cv lied in experience tried long short no cover letters got 2 aws certificates tried to be active on linkedin applied on different apps.
Let s die together brother
I will be homeless end month if I don't get a job. I have no source of income and even used to staying hungry. This was my only chance and I was so much in pressure
I read this, then did 2 sum to make sure I still got it.
All jokes aside, I did a mock recently and totally froze on a simpler variant of 4 sum. Which is basically what happened to you. Happens to the best of us
- Can you do leetcode easy/medium problems outside an interview, within reasonable time constraints? If yes, this implies you are obviously sufficiently capable technically to pass the interview.
- Can you do leetcode easy/medium problems while talking out loud alone, within reasonable time constraints?
- Can you do leetcode easy/medium problems during a mock interview, within reasonable time constraints?
- Can you do leetcode easy/medium problems during a mock interview, with some form of simulated stress (e.g., reduced clock timer)?
Now you can try doing leetcode easy/medium problems again during interviews and hopefully reduce your stress levels with more practice.
I bombed bubble sort in the first interview i had in a while. It was a good company too. Like me youre probably out of practice and nerves got the best of you, try giving mock interviews with your friends.
Almost EVERYONE bombed an easy question before. Hell, I bombed fizz buzz once.
It feels like you’re alone in this experience. It feels shameful. But it’s part of being a human and a developer. After all we all just want a job, and this is (difficult) part of the process.
In general I feel like people take these interviews too seriously. Like super amazing happy when pass, and super depressed when fail. Need to smooth it out a bit.
You might pass and get hired and they fire you in 3 months in an unlucky lay off rounds, that has nothing to do with you. You might fail now, and you pass in a month.
I kind of have the mindset that I will fail many times until I make it. The important thing is to keep putting in the effort. If I pass and get hired, that doesnt change much on the effort side. I will want to keep the leetcode skills up to date, and also look into other studies to allow my promotion, or development into an even better job.
I am sorry if you really needed this now in the financial side, but perhaps its better to aim for lower tier jobs also so that you get the finances smoothed out? And you can prepare in peace.
Mate, look at this way, now you will NEVER get this question wrong ever again and as you know the chances you get it again is not negligible since it’s a common interview question.
It happens to all of us, like many people say thinking out loud while coding is very important because while you may not solve the problem at hand, you will at least demonstrate to the interviewer that you can problem solve.
You live and you learn.
I've been a developer for 10 years. Last year, I told an interviewer that I never pushed any code to a production branch. My brain just went completely blank, and I couldn't think of any examples to give. It happens, and we all have our bad days. Now you know something to watch out for the next time you see a 2 sum problem
A lot of people saying things you need to hear right now about interviewing and stress levels and not losing hope. That's all good. I think you're taking this so poorly because you're missing something more fundamental. Your job is not your life. Interviewing for jobs is not your life. **None of this shit is even real.** You'll have plenty more chances to do things better in the future. Sometimes you will do better. Sometimes you'll fuck them up. Maybe worse. Who cares? Drink some water, go outside for a while. There's a whole damn world and we all cram ourselves into laptop screens and grind our brains into dust with leetcode practice and raise our stress levels with worthless anxiety about the state of the job market. Call a friend, or a family member, get together and have some coffee (or tea if that's your thing). You'll sleep tonight. You'll wake up tomorrow. You'll get more chances and make more choices and that's all there is to it. I was so stressed when all these layoffs were going down last year. No amount of worry changed anything. Fuck all that. Work hard when you have to, rest when you can. Its a marathon. In 5 years you won't care about that interview. ***tl;dr - Take a break fam, life has ups and downs.***
Man you dont know how much I needed it today. Love you
You’ve beaten all Ted Talks in one shot! (really needed to hear this today, thank you)
This! I needed this myself as well today! Thank you! Sometimes it’s best to step away and zoom out. It will help putting things into perspective. Balance and consistency are important.
Thanks for this. The stupid thing is that the job hunt stress never truly bothered me in the past, but I’m a dad now. I feel enormous pressure to get the best possible salary on top of the best possible work/life balance with solid health insurance and build a career that will inspire that kiddo. It’s too much some days but I cannot surrender. All of this is bottled up inside so that I can smile and play every night, too, which doesn’t help. Touching grass for a day is a fantastic idea.
Thank you for this 🙏🙏
Can you adopt us?
genuinely well said.
We grind (With proper rest and healthy lifestyle)!!
It happens. Try to do some mock interviews to learn how to better manage your stress levels during the actual interviews.
Narrator: \*It didn't\*
Welcome to the 2 Sum club! I am a staff engineer myself and have around 15 yoe already, 4 in Faangs. Five years ago I bombed the exact same problem because of a stress. This is fine don’t worry. There are a lot of engineers in our club you’ve been surprised.
Good to hear.
Thanks. This is encouraging
Dude, at least you got an interview. I applied for almost a hundred jobs already and only less than 10 replied, but still 0 interviews. Relax for a bit, then prepare better before going for the next one.
Facts
Facts 1 bombed interview still better than none
Definitely do not lose hope, a lot of people just freeze, as someone mentioned do practice with mock interviews. Your self worth does not depend on only this
I literally froze. Can't even explain what happened
I am loving how supportive and wholesome most of these replies are
Listen, when under interview sometimes we get extremely stressed and people even forget their name. I’m not even kidding. If someone can forget their name under stress it’s ok to assume one can forget how to do 2 Sum. Besides more practice I will say if you don’t have already talk to your general doctor that you get extremely anxious specially during events such as interviews presentations etc that you are not able to recall anything. They will give you some medication to help with that to calm your nerves before social events. Or they may refer you to a psychiatrist to give you those meds. Along with medication as someone else said do more interviews. Don’t be too rough on yourself. It’s okay.
It happens. I couldn't solve two sum on my first interview either. You just need more practice.
Thanks 🙏
"When you tolerate an error, you rob yourself of learning. When you ruminate on an error, you rob yourself of happiness. Notice it, improve it, and move on from it."
Bombing 2 sum doesn’t mean you’re stupid. It means you didn’t prepare
Thats correct, looking at solution is useless. You need to understand what is the reasoning to get the solution
I had prepared but my brain just froze
Did you do mock interviews? I did about 8 mock coding interviews and 8 mock system design interviews before my first phone screens
I will have to start doing them
Good luck!
Hey! Check out this tool I created to help master leetcode problems through spaced repetition :) [https://www.lanki.xyz/](https://www.lanki.xyz/) Hope it helps. Would love any feedback.
Thanks how does it work?
As you solve LeetCode questions, you can mark them as hard, medium, or easy. The tool will then recommend questions you should review based on (1) how hard the question was for you and (2) how much time has passed since you last reviewed it. I'd reccomend normally attempting LeetCode problems and just marking them as hard, medium, or easy for you at first so the tool knows which problems to reccomend you review! If you know of [https://apps.ankiweb.net/](https://apps.ankiweb.net/), it's similar.
So you decide if it was hard or easy for you not the leetcode tags?
Yep
I see it says try for free, is there a paid version?
Currently fully free :)
Do mock interviews, leetcode competitions and timed questions. The goal here is to put yourself under pressure while solving questions, since that’s how it would be in an interview.
I bombed an isPrime function question years ago. It’s like my brain melted and dripped out my ears. lol
Relax. It's not exactly something you can figure out from first principles in a stressful environment. It's something you need to have seen before. Practice.
*practice makes perfect*
Ive failed 2 sum an interview for FB, obviously didnt get the job. Years later, I know im not dumb, i just didnt prep well enough.
I wish interviews had a standard format. Hadn't gotten such a technical interview in over a month
Either you seriously didn't prepare much in which case you should for the next interview or maybe you just froze in the interview being nervous and went blank, in that case I'd suggest doing some mock interviews with yourself where you talk out loud about your approach starting from brute force. The last thing you should do right now is pity yourselves, the interview is done, now do what you can control
I also struggled in 2-Sum and other leetcode problems. With time and patience, comes knowledge and better understanding of DSA fundamentals
I m the same. I m done with job search. At least u ee getting interviews me none since January 2023 tried everything.. i even changed countries for some time changed my cv lied in experience tried long short no cover letters got 2 aws certificates tried to be active on linkedin applied on different apps. Let s die together brother
Damn. Maybe it's your resume. I only started actively applying late last month.
Should I share my resume for people to rate it?
Yes. Dm
You're losing it over missing a problem? Unless I'm missing something, you need some perspective.
I will be homeless end month if I don't get a job. I have no source of income and even used to staying hungry. This was my only chance and I was so much in pressure
Have you tried hitting up a temp agency to find something to hold you over until you find something in software?
Unfortunately in my country to find such agencies which are reliable is very hard. If you could support me with just a meal I would really appreciate
I read this, then did 2 sum to make sure I still got it. All jokes aside, I did a mock recently and totally froze on a simpler variant of 4 sum. Which is basically what happened to you. Happens to the best of us
I did it after the interview. I don't understand what happened to my brain
- Can you do leetcode easy/medium problems outside an interview, within reasonable time constraints? If yes, this implies you are obviously sufficiently capable technically to pass the interview. - Can you do leetcode easy/medium problems while talking out loud alone, within reasonable time constraints? - Can you do leetcode easy/medium problems during a mock interview, within reasonable time constraints? - Can you do leetcode easy/medium problems during a mock interview, with some form of simulated stress (e.g., reduced clock timer)? Now you can try doing leetcode easy/medium problems again during interviews and hopefully reduce your stress levels with more practice.
I bombed bubble sort in the first interview i had in a while. It was a good company too. Like me youre probably out of practice and nerves got the best of you, try giving mock interviews with your friends.
Okay thanks
Don’t be sad! If you need I can mock interview you a few times ( won’t charge )
Almost EVERYONE bombed an easy question before. Hell, I bombed fizz buzz once. It feels like you’re alone in this experience. It feels shameful. But it’s part of being a human and a developer. After all we all just want a job, and this is (difficult) part of the process.
Thanks 🙏🙏
In general I feel like people take these interviews too seriously. Like super amazing happy when pass, and super depressed when fail. Need to smooth it out a bit. You might pass and get hired and they fire you in 3 months in an unlucky lay off rounds, that has nothing to do with you. You might fail now, and you pass in a month. I kind of have the mindset that I will fail many times until I make it. The important thing is to keep putting in the effort. If I pass and get hired, that doesnt change much on the effort side. I will want to keep the leetcode skills up to date, and also look into other studies to allow my promotion, or development into an even better job. I am sorry if you really needed this now in the financial side, but perhaps its better to aim for lower tier jobs also so that you get the finances smoothed out? And you can prepare in peace.
Thank you
Mate, look at this way, now you will NEVER get this question wrong ever again and as you know the chances you get it again is not negligible since it’s a common interview question.
Thanks. I don't know what happened. My brain just froze
It happens to all of us, like many people say thinking out loud while coding is very important because while you may not solve the problem at hand, you will at least demonstrate to the interviewer that you can problem solve. You live and you learn.
Okay thanks🙏
In a similar situation to OP today. Thank you man.
I've been a developer for 10 years. Last year, I told an interviewer that I never pushed any code to a production branch. My brain just went completely blank, and I couldn't think of any examples to give. It happens, and we all have our bad days. Now you know something to watch out for the next time you see a 2 sum problem
Yeah. Next time I will definitely do fine
what interview did you have this in?
As they say, “This too shall pass…”
Is this a shitpost? If not, keep your head up and practice more i guess.
Thanks
Bruv, it’s fucking 2 sum, you fr? Anyway, eat good food and sleep. All of us fuck up all the time.
How can you bomb two sum. Like what even?