asked to solve a problem in a language I hadn't touched in three years and somehow that helped

Prepped everything in Python for months and then the onsite was Java, a language I hadn't written since a college course. Spent the first two minutes just relearning syntax out loud, which felt embarrassing in the moment, but slowing down to actually think about the syntax made me explain my logic more carefully than usual. Passed that round. Still not sure if it was the strategy or just luck.