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by assbuttbuttass 1151 days ago
> Another unavoidable facet of live coding interviews stems from effectively requiring someone to just start typing. For plenty of people, that’s not a problem, but for people who tend to be more tactile, visual, or kinesthetic, just banging on a keyboard isn’t a natural way to begin problem solving.

In my experience conducting these live coding interviews, it's almost a universal rule that if the candidate starts coding immediately, they will waste a lot of time on irrelevant details, or take a long time to see that their approach can't work.

I always try to encourage the candidate to talk through their solution or draw a diagram if it helps them. Candidates who follow this advice always perform better.