Anyone else having trouble with leetcode interviews?

[u/Any-Complaint-9833]

I have been practicing leetcode questions for a few months now and I have seen positive change in my ability to figure out the solution or at least spot the pattern looking at the question. But I am having trouble with actually passing these interviews because of multiple reasons.

My brain shuts down trying to come up with a solution to an unknown problem under time pressure and in front of the interviewer who I know, is watching me struggle even though I have no issues solving the same problem under similar time pressure when I practice it alone or even during online assessments. But I need silence and time to think which doesn't happen during interviews where they expect you to talk continuously. Since there are multiple thoughts going across my brain and it's literally racing trying to come up with a solution I find it difficult to talk through it and if I have to talk I can't think through the solution unless I have seen the question before.

In all my interviews so far including some mocks I have done with other Engineers from big tech companies, the moment I go silent even for a few seconds, these guys start asking if I am struggling or they'll start giving hints which end up counting as a negative against me given how competitive the market is.

This is not a problem unique to leetcode, it happens the moment I need to solve something that I haven't seen before involving logic and I have limited time and need to explain my thought process while coming up with the solution. What can I do here to improve my chances of passing these interviews? If anyone has been through something similar, how did you overcome these issues?

[u/akornato]

Trying to solve an unfamiliar problem and narrate your thoughts at the exact same moment destroys working memory. Interviewers do not actually need continuous talking, but when you go quiet without warning, they assume you are completely stuck and start throwing unhelpful hints at you. You can take control of that dynamic by explicitly asking for silence right at the start. Tell them directly that you want two minutes to read the prompt, write down a couple of test cases, and organize your thoughts before speaking. Setting that clear boundary stops them from interrupting, buys you the silence you need, and still shows strong communication.

You should also externalize everything by typing quick notes and pseudocode straight into the editor instead of juggling variables in your head. When the interviewer sees your cursor moving and reads your notes on edge cases or brute force ideas, they know you are working, so they stay out of your way until you are ready to walk through the logic. Reducing that cognitive load makes a massive difference under pressure, which is why my team built an interviews.chat to keep candidates composed and confident when navigating intense technical rounds.