[josephg]

> would almost definitely not pass such an interview.

If you would fail an interview like this, it’s not calibrated correctly. I know it’s unsatisfying, but nobody gets perfect marks on assessments like this by design. Nobody is expecting you to program up a correct btree on a whiteboard in an interview. Just being able to speak in detail about data structures and algorithms from practical experience is a very strong signal in a candidate. Let alone being able to explain high level concepts, and talk about when they’re useful and maybe explain some implementation details. That’s great!