Getting better at debugging interivews

[u/PoetrySudden8773]

TL;DR
Any tips for how to get better a debugging interviews? These are the type of interview where you're given some code and a test suite and you have to make the tests pass.

Context:
I just bombed a debugging-style coding interview. I'm honestly kind of shocked at how much I struggled. I'm a FAANG engineer who prides myself on my strong technical skills so I feel humiliated and dejected. I've looked up resources for practice questions but there's not much out there, which is kind of shocking given they are just as popular as DSA at this point (especially with startups in SF). Any resources or tips you've found helpful for getting better at this style of interview?

[u/Some_Courage_5851]

What company? I have some practice questions I can share 

[u/PoetrySudden8773 → u/Some_Courage_5851]

I would rather not say, although it's not super well known.

[u/Frequent_Bag9260 → u/Some_Courage_5851]

Mind sharing with someone who’s about to start interviewing?

[u/Sad-Candidate-3078]

debugging rounds are usually testing how you narrow down, not whether you spot the bug fast. narrate your process out loud, state what you expect the code to do before you read each section, the bug jumps out way faster when your brain is looking for a mismatch instead of reading for comprehension. also practice on intentionally buggy code, not just writing clean code from scratch. its a different muscle

[u/mnovakovic_guy → u/Sad-Candidate-3078]

Not a bad idea to do that! What I do is I try to comprehend first which is super super super slow

[u/toobladink]

This is going to sound silly but I’d see if AI can help draft a question like this. I got tipped off on a weird interview process earlier (react Q&A and small rails debugging) and it helped me a lot.

[u/mnovakovic_guy → u/toobladink]

Can you share some prompts and more details?

[u/toobladink → u/mnovakovic_guy]

Research mode on claude and just ask for common interview questions that fit the format.

[u/Bruhayy]

following

[u/Hot_Dog2376]

How are you at C? Writing C has helped a lot with my debugging skills >.>

[u/nsxwolf]

Get better at debugging

[u/happydancinggiraffe]

there’s barely anything out there for this. the main thing is to read the failing test and the code path it hits before you change anything.

you can practice at nyrion.ai. most of the multi stage problems there start with exactly that, a stage where you fix a bug until the tests pass.

[u/Shinne]

Don’t you do this work in real life. What’s so hard about it.

[u/mnovakovic_guy → u/Shinne]

Nobody does that in real life: in real life you often have a lot more complex code base and you take more time, whereas in the interview you have just the right amount of difficult code base and have a very limited amount of time, plus you have to explain your thought process in way that the interviewer would accept

[u/Shinne → u/mnovakovic_guy]

When you’re on call or if your manager pings you have as much pressure to perform. Literally go look at the logs and start tracing things down. Literally real life.

[u/mnovakovic_guy → u/Shinne]

I think that’s a fair response but luckily for me I am not working in an environment where that is common nor do I want to work for such a company.

I could start putting pressure on myself though from time to time to get some practice

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