Almost everyone in the industry gets rejected in coding interview at least once in their career. Few bounces back and few finds it difficult to overcome this fear of getting rejected again.

I have interviewed with many MNCs and Startups and has got at least one rejection from most of them. Each failed interview taught me something that I would have never discovered about myself and my knowledge bar.

Worst situation to be in during Coding Interviews and how to overcome them in your next.

• Not knowing a particular concept.

  There will be times that the questions in the interview is about something that you have never learned, practiced or heard of.

  How to Overcome: Firstly during you preparation, never miss a concept just because it is not popular in interviews. Even if you have less time during preparation just try to understand the working of concept and how it implemented. Still if you find yourself in such situation then the worst thing to do at this point is being silent. This is where your “handling critical conversation/situation skills” are measured. Keep thinking about the ways the problem can be approached with. Discuss different strategies that you are thinking about with interviewer. Keeping the conversation going will not only help you to think in different direction but it will also encourage the interviewer to help you think in the right direction because you’re keeping them engaged in the conversation. This will also save you the direct rejection because you’re willing to try even if you don’t know the concept.

• Not being vocal about your approach.

  There will be times where you directly get into some code section that you haven’t explained to your interviewer. Always keep your interviewer on the same page as you are. Never jump right through the approaches. Let the interviewer know how did we get there.

  How to Overcome: I faced such situation in many interviews where the interviewer had no idea about purpose of code section I was writing. Because I did not keep the interviewer on the same page as I was. In the middle of writing code we realize that this won’t work and we switch the approach and the interviewer has no idea how did we go from approach ‘A’ to approach ‘B’.

  Keep you interviewer engaged with your each thought during the interview and each line you write during the interview. That leaves a great impression.

  During your preparation, start having mock interviews with your friends or the best way is to start interviewing yourself. Explain the approach to yourself as you would do in an interview. This will help you build up the confidence to speak and help you understand the topic pretty well.

• Not being able to manage the time during interview.

  Sometimes it may take so long to arrive at a solution that you end up draining your interview time.

  How to Overcome: Always keep and eye on the clock. You might find yourself in this situation due to several reasons. a) You are directly thinking about the optimal solutions. b) You are not able to understand the requirements of the problem. c) You are not able to come-up with a bruteforce approach.

  Always start with coming up with a bruteforce solution. This will help you understand the problem better and come-up with a better solution. Writing bruteforce also helps you find the edge cases you might not discover if you directly jump to the optimal solution. The moment you realize you are taking more time then you should, mention to the interviewer that you are stuck somewhere and the interviewer will show you the right direction. This will save you a ton of time. You might lose half a point for getting help it’s always better then not being able to complete the solution in time.

• Panicking during the interview

  Sometimes you start panicking during the interview and due to that you restrict yourself from being able to think in direction of solution. Sometimes you know the solution but you still can’t reach there during the interview. The moment that interview is over, you’ll start getting plenty of different ideas to solve that problem.

  How to Overcome: You might find yourself in this situation due to plenty of reasons. a) you don’t give yourself enough time before interview to think about thoughts that can hinder your flow. b) you care more about the interview than solving the problem. c) you get distracted by other thoughts rather than focusing on the problem.

  This is what helps me to overcome such situations.

  “Isolate yourself for some time before Interview.” No phone, No interaction with people, No music, Nothing. Just think about the Experience in your journey, the stories you’re about to tell in the interview, the topics you are going to use, the algorithms that you may discuss. repeat them to yourself, how would you say this thing in an interview. Think just about the interview and nothing else. What this exercise does is, psychologically it create a layer around you thoughts where you’re only thinking about this hour you got with an interviewer. This will help focus only on the problem and restrict the thoughts about what is happening in your life outside of this interview.

  Sometimes before your interview you start caring about the interview more than you should since you know how important it is to you. This restricts even the basic ideas and solution to come into your brain. That is why sometimes you are not able to solve some problem during an interview but you could solve that problem like butte once the interviews over, because you miss the minute details about the problem that you would never miss if you weren’t solving that problem in an interview. The moment you go inside that room or start that join button, your motivation should be being able to solve the problem given to you and not being able to crack this interview. Once you start caring about the problem, you’ll never get a feeling of panicking during the interview.

• Getting demotivated by rejection letters

  Sometimes you get rejection that makes you feel worst and you do not wish to be in that situation ever again.

  This also depends on the response we get from the companies after getting rejected. Some of the companies sends very constructive emails that motivates us to work hard and appear again for the interview, whereas few don’t even take a moment to let the candidate know that they are not moving forward with their candidature.

  I once got a rejection email from a company, and according to default emotion mechanics I should feel bad right? but I felt good after reading that rejection.

  This is what it said-

  We wish to inform you, that we won’t be able to take your candidature ahead at this time. It is not easy to put yourself out there, and we respect your effort. We hope this has been a great learning experience, and that you gained some relevant insights through this screening process.

  “However, the road to does not end here, for this is not merely an event, but a celebration of everything that you are.”

  We wish you all the very best.

This email changed my perception towards rejections. And yes at this very moment I started believing that every failed interview is a mock interview for the real one. you should always analyze your interviews and improve upon it. I have been in all of the above mentioned situation and it has costed me a lot, I would have been a lot ahead in my career if it weren’t for these situations but I find myself very fortunate to face these situations first hand in the interviews and learn how to overcome them.

The Challenge here is to not feel less of yourself after rejections. This is merely an event, but a celebration of who you are. Accept the fact and start working on it because that is the only way to close the difference between where you are and where you aspire to be.

This is my personal Opinion and experiences, This might differ from other people's opinions.