[blurbleblurble]

Recently I took a leetcode screening, my first ever, and failed to complete one single question in the allotted time due to a minor panic attack and a sudden loss of focus. The whole time I couldn't help but think about the state of the economy and how "this is it, this is my only chance." Half the time I was fighting with the in-browser IDE and struggling to remember names of JavaScript builtins that usually come easy.

Immediately after the time was up I magically started to realize how much I'd over complicated my one almost finished answer and quickly came up with much more efficient answer. Suddenly it started clicking how simple the first two problems were and how easy it would have been to crank them out if I wasn't panicking about the tech bubble collapse.

The recruiter later asked me how it went and I grumbled something about how it was a leetcode test. He said "oh well they need to make sure you have the skills for the job." At that point I was over the whole thing and honestly pretty fired up.

Over the next week I proved to myself that I do have the technical skills for that job, and that's honestly what counts.

¯ \ _ ( ツ ) _ / ¯

[ryandvm]

I always bomb the whiteboard coding portion. I've been doing this for over 20 years. I've been a senior engineer since before the iPhone existed.

Fortunately, I interview well and can discuss many, many technical concepts deeply. But put me in front of a whiteboard and I couldn't tell you my mom's name.

[dumpsterdiver]

I imagined you standing in front of a white board, flustered, and then writing "mom" on the board. Made me laugh.

[emodendroket]

No matter what the interview format is you can just have an off day.