Ask HN: Have anxiety, need help with live coding interviews (funny hat dance)

I've failed 4 live coding interviews so far, which has been my wake-up call that I need to learn this skill.

I do question funny hat dances value in the real world...

I learned a different funny hat dance 8 years ago called white boarding.

I questioned its real world value back then too, but had no choice, it's what people wanted to see.

I'm not saying I'm the best engineer in the world. I'm saying I've provided tons of value for the companies I've worked at and my salary reflects that. I've had an above market rate salary for the last 3 years.

No, the company I work for isn't dumb, in fact, it's often seen as tackling some of the hardest problems in computer science (decentralized cloud storage). I know I provide value and I know I'm a good engineer.

However, I also suffer from anxiety.

It makes me appear dumb in these live problem situations. This week, I was awake half the night for two nights because my heart rate was going so fast. The week previous, same story. I don't understand it myself. I tell myself "who cares" to try to get my body to sleep, but it doesn't work. You can imagine how having no sleep can affect an interview. It makes me fail again and again.

So why don't you practice?

I'm going to. I just haven't had time yet. See my question at the end

Isn't your anxiety from not preparing?

Partially. I've had to deal with this my whole life. If I prepare and convince myself I don't care at all about the outcome, the anxiety goes away, but otherwise it's always there.

Why is this only a problem now?

I haven't had to interview since 2015, my last two jobs I got from being poached. Those who know me, are familiar with my work ethic and my ability to problem solve.

So here I am, like 8 years ago, I have no choice but to learn how to dance with a funny hat on, so here's my question.

How have you best prepared for live coding interviews?

Bypass the screening interviews when possible (not everyone has to do all the live coding exercises) thanks to internal referral, etc.

Realize that even if you pass a leetcode screen, you might get bounced for some completely arbitrary reason at some other point in the interview process.

So, see the live coding as one aspect of an of an arbitrary and weird way people make decisions these days. (Remember your value and understand even if you ace that part it doesn’t mean you’re gonna get a job).

Know what makes you really amazing and unique. Whatever you’re great at, if the fit is good for the role they will be selling it to you the entire time.

If you’re fighting uphill for a job whether it’s at the live code stage or elsewhere, take note. Use that live coding session as practice for the one you really want.

For the most part, I've learned to live with it, but it has greatly been amplified by these interviews lately.

I've also had it happen to me when I'm on business calls when I'm acting on behalf of the business to make a good impression.

And of course, public speaking, but I feel like that's pretty normal.

I like what you're saying though, just knowing there is a backup plan when things aren't going as planned, in and of itself is treatment.

Hence the reason I decided to go in pretty much cold-turkey. I wrongly assumed a decade of shipping 5 SaaS products from scratch (some completely by myself), that have real revenue, and thousands of users, sometimes millions.

They only want to see me dance with a funny hat on

Nothing else seems to matter.

I mean I get it, they need to screen people.

Is there not another way to screen people though that doesn't amplify my anxiety?

Doing other activities that induce this sort of anxiety can help too. I've been a combat athlete my whole life, and the anxiety you get before a match is like no other. Not being able to sleep the night before is the norm, and I've seen people vomit before matches. Plus, it's not a few engineers watching you, but rather a whole crowd of people watching you, with half of them cheering for you to lose. After this experience, live coding interviews are a cake-walk. I get nervous as well with a pounding heart and nervous sweats, etc. But I tell myself I've been here before, and perform as best as I can in spite of it, like I've done before. I generally don't perform quite as well in the interview or match as I do when no one's watching, but that's just how it goes. Learning to perform under pressure like that is a skill that needs to be cultivated.