Hi everyone, I just had a strange experience during a recent internship interview, and I’m wondering if anyone else has encountered something similar or has any insights.

Here’s how it went:

First Round

I was asked two questions:

1. Find the average value of each level in a binary tree
2. Remove the minimum number of parentheses to make a string valid

I provided optimal solutions to both questions, but there was a technical issue on the CoderPad platform during the interview. I couldn’t see the interviewer's typing, which caused some confusion when they tried to give follow-up hints. As a result, my answers to some of their follow-up questions might not have been ideal.

Second Round

The questions were:

1. Determine if a string can become a palindrome by removing at most one character
2. Simulate the result of a cd command given a current file path and the command input

After these two rounds, I thought things went okay, but just 30 minutes later, the HR emailed me saying there would be a third round.

My Questions

1. Does this mean I didn’t do well in the first two rounds or it is about technical issue?
2. Are internship interviews becoming this intense with so many rounds these days?

I’d love to hear if anyone has had a similar experience or knows why follow-up interviews happen so quickly. Thank you!