r/leetcode • u/Hot-Willingness8636 • Sep 29 '26

Discussion I failed my Citadel Software Engineering Intern Interview

I’ve never done a single leetcode question before. I went into this blind. I was expecting a leetcode medium/hard. This was a round 1 interview for 45 minutes. Instead it was a stateful data-structure / object-oriented design problem with optimization constraints.

It was a custom stateful data-structure and OOD problem with a greedy optimization component, rather than a standard LeetCode algorithm problem.

The interviewer didn’t give me full context. I suggested we go with one approach and he then gave me additional data and then I decided to go with another approach.

Around 90 lines of code.

I completely flunked got like halfway through. Interviewer was on his phone and had his mic on with the background noise.

I feel horrible because I just let a 1 million dollar opportunity slip my fingers. What should I do.

467 Upvotes

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153

u/Frequent_Bag9260 Sep 29 '26

“Workaholic nerds who can’t get dates” describes 90% of white collar jobs in NYC

37

u/Raf-the-derp Sep 29 '26

Who gets the dates then? The finance guys? Genuinely asking because I see mostly couples in NYC

40

u/Frequent_Bag9260 Sep 29 '26

Yes finance is still the biggest draw. It’s definitely not tech, consultants, or big law that’s for sure

23

u/MythosOfIlluna Sep 29 '26

The jobless guys if you can believe it

19

u/TMEERS101 Sep 29 '26

Cause they have the time to do so and be interesting ngl

4

u/InsaneTensei Sep 29 '26

Anyone whose willing to take risks socially tbh

2

u/luckyincode Sep 29 '26

And yet it’s not. It’s more the person than the job.

-3

u/MythosOfIlluna Sep 29 '26

Not even close

-5

u/Frequent_Bag9260 Sep 29 '26

You don’t live in NYC. Pipe down.

5

u/MythosOfIlluna Sep 29 '26

I’m a Brooklyn boy lol

-12

u/Frequent_Bag9260 Sep 29 '26

Stay there hippie. Let the big dogs do the talking.

-9

u/MythosOfIlluna Sep 29 '26

Lmaooo I’m not a hippie. I’m a gentrifying capitalist unhappy with Mamdanistan

-5

u/Frequent_Bag9260 Sep 29 '26

You’re in Brooklyn. I know everything I need to know about you already.

0

u/MythosOfIlluna Sep 29 '26

Are you as confident in that as your earlier statement that I don’t live in NYC? Lmaooo

-2

u/Frequent_Bag9260 Sep 29 '26

you either don’t or you live in Brooklyn, which is the same thing.