AnonymousAnon6 days ago

Three things I wish someone told me before my first pair programming interview

Anonymous · 2026-08-15T04:18:39.143709101Z

1. Narrate before you type, not after. Silence while your cursor moves reads as confusion even when it isn't. 2. It's fine to ask if they want brute force first or optimal first. Sounds obvious in hindsight, wasted ten minutes guessing wrong on my first one. 3. If they're driving and you're navigating, that round is testing communication way more than syntax. Stopped worrying about writing perfect code once I realized that. None of this is groundbreaking but I didn't know any of it walking in the first time.

#interview-prep#technical-interview

Narrate before you type, not after. Silence while your cursor moves reads as confusion even when it isn't.
It's fine to ask if they want brute force first or optimal first. Sounds obvious in hindsight, wasted ten minutes guessing wrong on my first one.
If they're driving and you're navigating, that round is testing communication way more than syntax. Stopped worrying about writing perfect code once I realized that. None of this is groundbreaking but I didn't know any of it walking in the first time.

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AnonymousAnon6 days ago
Number 2 is the one nobody says out loud. Asking felt like admitting I didn't already know the answer, but every interviewer I've asked has just answered straight and moved on.