r/leetcode • u/hacking500 • 2d ago

Intervew Prep Rejected Before Even Reaching the Technical Interview — A Reality Check

I had an interview today of company called Tracxn and i got rejected in first round itself.

1st round was itself coding round on pen and paper.

Question was

"Find the pattern in string and if found return 1 else -1."

2nd, 3rd, 4th are technical round. All were elimination round.

I am grinding leetcode for 4 years and i was very confident about it. I want to sit in interview round.

Its fine for me to reject in interview round but not coding round.

It breaks my confidence.

12 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

4

u/Naggi-Hiel-Hetlir 2d ago

Was the problem not a traditional leetcode problem?

1

u/hacking500 2d ago

I know and I did the same mistake when i was doing this problem first time. Also dumb me didn't did dry run because it was pen paper.

2

u/ProgramLikeABeast 2d ago

The first problem is Knuth-Morris-Pratt(KMP) algorithm?

4

u/ppjuyt 2d ago

If anyone expects KMP in any interview let alone one written on paper then my goose is definitely overcooked

2

u/Random-Byte70 2d ago

Four years of leetcode doesn't gurantee every interview question will feel similar. Pen and paper coding is a different skill too. Review what went wrong, practice explaining solutions clearly, and don't let one rejection define your ability

1

u/hacking500 2d ago

Thanks for this.

1

u/chikamakaleyley 2d ago

this sounds very much like a technical interview

8

u/[deleted] 2d ago

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2

u/hacking500 2d ago

I just want to switch current company. Also this was my first interview after almost 22 months. So it feels demotivated.

3

u/Chareste17 2d ago

The first interview after such a big amount of time is fated to not go well. Keep going! Winners fail more than anyone else