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by paulddraper 2490 days ago
A. It's pretty dumb to fail an live coding interview assignment for that reason.

B. Yes, mental models are absolutely critical.

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A better interview assignment to test mental models would be to architect a data model or system. No code, just concepts and relationships.

On meaningfully sized non-FizzBuzz problems, starting by banging out code is like starting a vacation by getting in the car and driving. A better use of time is upfront thinking about possible plans, pros, and cons.