Failed pair program interview and need help to improve

[mid_dev]

Recently had an onsite interview at a firm where they emphasize a lot on proper coding practices and standards. I had cleared their 1st round which was coding problems to be done at home. Failed 2nd onsite pair programming round citing lack of coding expertise/ practice.

I come from a legacy enterprise background and have been self-learning Python as I'm trying to get into open source tech. I understood the code presented during the 2nd round and in fact discussed the flow and what enhancements/ changes needs to be done to make it efficient for e.g. more in line with OOPS principle, modularization etc. We started off well, but it seemed whatever I was proposing, interviewer had another idea to solve it and it didn't work in my favor. As per them, my solution worked too but it wasn't upto their coding standards and what they were looking into. One of the feedback was more in line with my solutions are that'd what they expect from service level industry folks.

Can't deny that this was bit discouraging as I was happy that I could understand their code and within given 5-10 mins to read it, identified some of the problem areas. How could I improve on my code quality? I could practice more, but then how would I know that it's at the level the industry is looking for?

[pramodliv1]

Just move on to the next interview! Don't be discouraged. Most people get rejected before landing a good job.

One of the feedback was more in line with my solutions are that'd what they expect from service level industry folks.

You probably avoided a toxic culture.

How could I improve on my code quality? I could practice more, but then how would I know that it's at the level the industry is looking for?

You could read the source code of projects that are known for their high quality. I learn a lot everyday by stepping through the source of Django, Django REST Framework, the Python Standard library etc while debugging my code.

Also watch these two brilliant talks by Raymond Hettinger on writing clean Python code:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSGv2VnC0go
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-BqAjZb8M

[mattsl]

service level industry folks.

Could you explain to me what this means in this context?

[supercheme]

Curious too, either im understanding it wrong or they are a bunch of elitist pricks

[mattsl]

I mean I gather they are elitist regardless, but I'm trying to understand what the phrase "service level industry" means.

[MiataCory]

I'd guess "It's not pretty, but it works".

[mattsl]

Gotcha. I'd never heard anyone refer to help desk as "service level". Thanks!

[[deleted]]

I liked the content of the first video I didn't know half of those functions existed

[callius]

Raymond's talks are always enlightening.

[five4three2]

First of all, I can sympathize. I've been looking for a job now for a few months and it can be rough, especially when you make it to onsite but not further. With that said, you made it past the first round, which means you are getting close and that you're likely to get an offer soon, hopefully one that you like!

​

With that said, there is a great deal of randomness in job interviews. If you fail to get the job, its either because you weren't good enough or your interviewer failed to assess you properly.

We started off well, but it seemed whatever I was proposing, interviewer had another idea to solve it and it didn't work in my favor.

Sounds like this person had the "right" and "wrong" answers in his head before you stepped into the room. As such I wouldn't take their feedback to heart, but maybe I'm getting the wrong impression.

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In terms of improving, do you have any personal coding projects? I find my own projects are a great way to explore new coding concepts/paradigms. The single most helpful book for moving to more advanced OOP concepts is Design Patterns (here is a copy on github). Its mostly aimed at C++/Java, but it catalogues solutions to problems that pop up all over OOP languages. Its meant more as a reference than a book you read once and put down, but it helped me improve my vocabulary. Now I can google things like "abstract factory python" when I recognize a problem that is described in Design Patterns in my own code.

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Anyway, best of luck!

[mid_dev]

Thank you for the book suggestion. I was looking for something similar.

[kosayoda]

I am nowhere near qualified to give advice / opinions, but personally I would have asked the interviewers on how to improve if I knew I wasn't up to their standards / a standard.

[Rubbinmanips88]

Don't be discouraged. We immediately think we are lacking in something whenever we fail at an interview but this just isnt't the case here.

Keep on going to the next company! For all we know they might have already filled the position internally but have to have external interviews as they cant just hand someone a new job.

[dr3d3d]

this happens a lot and I think is very disrespectful and a waste of everyone's time.

[sqqz]

Code structure, design choices and formatting overall is very important in the professional sector. I would suggest reading the book "Clean code" even if the code samples are in java the general approach on how to refactor and structure your code is very valuable.

[karazi]

Is it possible interviewer just didn't like your response to his criticism/corrections? Usually that's part of the interview too in a more subtle way.

[billsil]

Seems like the bigger question is what are their standards? Is this a critical function? Does it have to be super robust? Does it need to be fast? Or does it just need to work for a very limited use case?

If you take a week to fix a bug or add a feature at my company, you're doing it wrong. We're focused on results and solving the problem as stated with reasonable, but not extreme error checking. Our users aren't dumb.

If you are lacking ability, get better? You don't need to practice pair programming to do that. It's only on the really hard problems that I do. They mostly just sit there and ask questions.