!process ZipHQ Reject (After final)

[mystic zinc]

how was final

[outer pond]

diabolical

tragic

[mystic zinc]

sorry to hear

was it practical or lc

[outer pond]

lmao it's fine we're chillin

both

[mystic zinc]

which one was harder

[outer pond]

practical for sure

you just don't have enough time for it

[mystic zinc]

any way to prep for it or not really

[outer pond]

I mean if you've been big in codebases/open source you'll be fine

you need to learn a provided codebase + add new features + write tests + follow coding style

45 mins

2nd feature was essentially an entire parser

tbf it was also my first time approaching a problem/interview like this so that may have played a part

[mystic zinc]

i see ty

yaa im prob cooked then

do they guide/give hints at all or not really

[outer pond]

You can ask where things are located but not much more than that

[royal crater]

I also failed that practical interview lol

[dim venture]

Lmfao failed practical too

[flint briar]

+1

[flint briar]

i don't think the codebase was necessarily insanely big, but my interviewer kinda was mostly radio silent and was ok with brainstorming approach for second part, but was not very generous overall with hinting

[flint briar]

i think the second part of parser was def a bit of creative thinking b/c i went in a bad direction for like 10 mins, but interviewer hint reoriented my thinking but i guess they expected second part to be mostly working

honestly the only tip if you're new to the practical is rely on the search button to help you and skim fast to get the gist!!! You need all those minutes you can get

[dim venture]

Did u pass? @flint briar

[flint briar]

no. i got rejected and when I asked for feedback, the interviewer cited that they liked "picking up the codebase fast", but went astray with grasping nesting AND/OR condition. Continued a bit too long on convoluted approach and required hinting from interviewer to simplify. If I had handled more complex cases, more leniency would've been granted

also, another tip for practical is USE the existing utility functions that are provided (or slightly refactor). Goal is to get something working with not too much effort

[royal crater]

if somebody with 2.5 years of experience can't solve how are us new grads supposed to lolol

[flint briar]

45 mins for 2 parts and u needed to quickly ramp up on the mock codebase is def a lot to expect from candidate lol. There are much fairer processes you'll have

[outer pond]

Yeah that’s what I tried to do as well but at some point it’s just luck as to how quickly you identify where things go

Or how things connect

[fossil wedge]

Hey, just jumping in here bc i have my final next week. Wondering if they asked dp for the leetcode?

[outer pond]

It’s not out of the question, brace for anything

[flint briar]

100% agree. better to be prepared to pick up stuff fast

[flint briar]

for me the interviewer didn't really want to give hints. complete turn off

he kinda just kept saying "think about it" like 5 times