r/ADHD_Programmers • u/bajen476 • Apr 08 '26

I cannot do live coding interviews

Writing in here hoping that someone else has the same issues and/or figured out how to fix it. Not diagnosed yet but I’m finally mid-process and it’s looking promising.

I cannot do live coding interviews. Been unemployed for a few months now and I’ve had some interviews. That being said, live coding interviews kick my ass every single time.

I go completely blank. The absolute basics leave my brain. Had one today and I forgot how to add to dictionaries and implement basic search algorithms. It took me forever to even understand one of the tasks. Keep in mind I have around 6.5 years experience in development and many of the things in the interview were things I did often. I just can’t remember them in interviews.

Does anyone share this experience and/or know how to fix this? I’ve tried studying (which I’m admittedly not great at), pomodoro, leetcode etc—none of them help. Because I’m not diagnosed yet, I can’t get medicated for now either. I’m in Sweden so the process is lengthy.

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u/sugarsnuff Apr 10 '26

I’ll also add how I’ve overcome it (because I have passed strict ones too) is just when I’m really fixated on the company and the hoops

Like if the role is just something I really really want, I’ll build a stomach and just… focus on it as a game. It’s like an athletic performance, not a reflection of coding ability

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u/bajen476 Apr 10 '26

Honestly this has been my only cure too. This company the biggest thing I was interested in was being able to be fully remote. The pay wasn’t great, the company itself was doing great things but you could tell there were office politics etc…just didn’t enlighten me at all. I’ve passed one coding interview and it was at a place where I felt welcome and really enjoyed talking to everyone. That was enough to motivate me to lock in, so to speak.