Jut got done with my New Grad Role VO. 2 rounds. 45 mins each.

I wont reveal the actual questions due to NDA but I think all were from past 30 days sorted by freq.

Judge how did I do

Round 1

Question 1 - Two String question

Gave brute force. Asked to optimise without space. Gave the correct solution. No hints needed. Asked correct questions to handle the edge cases. Gave proper time and space. Here I made some really small mistakes. Like using the same variable name. Corrected while dry running. I used bad var names “string1” and “string2”. Which at the end I mentioned- I said these names are bad and I should make them more meaningful. Interviewer ack’d and said nice but not needed

Was asked a followup (no code needed). Not sure how I did. Just said out loud out what I thought was right then.

Question 2 - A really really famous question that requires stack but can be done without as well. I think it was easy-medium

Gave both stack and non-stack optimal solution. Coded both. Walked through 2 examples. No followups

Had 7 mins to spare. I asked about their work, culture etc

Round 2

Question 1 Easy 2 array questions.

Gave brute force with correct time and space complexities. Asked to do in place (Dont count space needed for storing result).

Coded only the optimal. Dry run with an example. I gave correct time and space.

Question 2 Medium Tree Question. Asked to do in place.

Stumbled. Forgot. Coded something up, I wasn't confident. Was stuck for a while. I asked if I was going in the right direction. I was. Interviewer suggested another approach. Wasnt sure how to do it their way. Asked if I could go with mine as I was close.

Somehow at the end got it right. Interviewer said that one line is redundant and wrong. Deleted that extra line.

The interviewer apologized for taking me in a wrong direction lol. What she said wasn't wrong but that would have been completely different from what I was tryna do.

In the end my code was in-place and the interviewer said it "Seems correct to me"

What I worry about is my dry run wasnt as great as I it was for other questions. I somehow managed to dry run but during the dry run I removed that extra line that was wrong. So not sure. Also there was a silence for sometime bcz the question threw me off my game but somehow I got my shit together.

I think my explanation here was weaker than my other questions.

What do you guys think? How did I do? I also think I should have asked clarifying questions. But I didnt have any. The questions were very very obvious and there was nothing to clarify honestly. I still managed to ask a question in Round 1 Question 1

All questions were very very likely to be from past 30 days as I said. I can’t reveal so sorry for that :(

Extras and FYIs:

INTL MS CS student at a T25 uni, 3.9/4 GPA. ~20 months of work ex. 1 year in non tech and rest as SWE/SDE at a no name startup.

Got reached out by uni recruiter on 7th oct. Took the OA on 11th oct. I had 3 completely working OA solutions and last question passed 13/20 or so tests.

Got a clear signal on OA the next day and then scheduled my VOs.