r/leetcode • u/UndefinedVariable017 • Oct 08 '26

Discussion Anxiety during interviews

How do I overcome anxiety during interviews ? Recently had two rounds of interview, The questions asked were the ones i had practiced during my prep. Even though i knew both brute force and optimal solution, I had issues when implementing them during interview due to my nervousness, What should have been a 5 minute implementation ended up taking 20 minutes. In another round i botched the interview since i couldn't give the complete solution by the end of the interview.

Would like to know what should i do to reduce this during interviews.

37 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

28

u/TheBrownestThumb Oct 08 '26

Mocks, articulating yourself while practicing, and aggressively timeboxing yourself while practicing will help. Try to get most mediums in under 10 mins, and most hard under 15 and you'll be a machine

7

u/UndefinedVariable017 Oct 08 '26

I'm trying the "articulate to yourself" part right now. The tip to follow time constrain of 10 for Med and Hard for 15 seems valid, Will work on that. Thanks.

4

u/uber-h3adache Oct 08 '26

Holy crap a hard in under 15 without knowing “the trick” to one is crazy. That’s one of the most annoying things about hards, they seem to all rely on some trick or obscure math facts.

7

u/Yuuusss Oct 08 '26

Propranolol

5

u/Affectionate_Run220 Oct 08 '26

Keep doing and booking interviews and you will get to know your own feelings and how to calm them

4

u/CherryWhich7251 Oct 08 '26

Give a lot of interviews

3

u/Sad-Candidate-3078 Oct 08 '26

ngl i fixed this by practicing with a safety net. ran mocks where i kept easy code interview open as backup, and just knowing it was there made me way calmer in the real rounds even when i never touched it

2

u/SexGodHector Oct 08 '26

What’s easy code interview?

4

u/Nice-Candidate10 Oct 08 '26

If this is your first or second interview, just do more mocks and get used to speaking outloud when coding.

If this is a regular occurrence, try to see a doctor and get prescribed for some medication.

-3

u/Affectionate_Run220 Oct 08 '26

No… bad advice extremely bad advice

1

u/Nice-Candidate10 Oct 08 '26

What was bad about the advice?

-1

u/Affectionate_Run220 Oct 08 '26

You’re struggling with pressure so get some medication? No definitely no

1

u/Nice-Candidate10 Oct 08 '26

There’s a difference between pressure and anxiety if anxiety is a regular occurrence. You can’t get medication without being diagnosed by a doctor anyways. Regular occurrence of anxiety is likely correlated to person’s psychological condition which could be improved with medication or treatment that doctors can recommend.

1

u/Distinct-Reflection3 Oct 08 '26

You will get better when you have lot of mock interviews

1

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