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I did something like this on the interview for my current role! It's not exactly what you asked about, but I'll describe it in case you find it helpful.

The technical interviewer gave me an algorithm question that I fielded for an interview for another company. I said I've heard it before, and asked if there was a backup question we should switch to. The interviewer said we should go ahead and I basically just dropped the optimum answer and live coded it. I mentioned I would be rustier on the "harder version" of it that comes next, and found out he wasn't familiar with that particular twist. I asked if I could give it to him and we could work it out together, and he said yes. So we spent the rest of the half hour laughing with me sort of leading him through a more challenging form of the question and working it out together.

I don't think this would have been successful if I went into the interview with a random Leetcode question in my back pocket and awkwardly asked for someone to work through it for me. However, if it comes up naturally for you like it did for me, it can be a very fun and rewarding experience.



This sounds pretty much ideal. Two people [vaguely] familiar with a problem working through it together. Both have the opportunity to evaluate each other. This is exceedingly rare in practice. Obviously you got (and accepted) an offer.

Some of the best interviews I've given and taken have gone roughly this way. It's nearly impossible to set this up intentionally, though.


do pair programming on any coding problem. could be a live one from your actual work, or some FOSS project using a similar tech stack


that is hilarious and awesome. Did you enjoy working with them, and did you think tackling a newer unseen problem with the interviewer as a peer showcased your skills well? I wondered if that would be a better experience (having the interviewer unfamiliar with the question as well, or something like that).


you should have asked him to build something you built in the past, which you needed several hours for, and ask him to do it in one minute. only then would you solve his question.


Power move




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