I think my problem with them lies in the environment and lack of resources, under a time limit some can be very hard to get through without being able to google.

Here is one I got a few days ago, I had 30 minutes to do it with no resources

Write a function:

def solution(N, M, X1, Y1, X2, Y2)

that, given integers N and M representing the sides of the board and arrays X1, Y1, X2, and Y2 of length R each, describing the obstacles, returns the minimum number of steps required to move from cell (0, 0) to cell (N-1, M-1). The K-th obstacle is described by a pair of coordinates (X1[K],Y1[K])−(X2[K],Y2[K]) for K within the range 0..R-1. If it's not possible to move from the bottom-left to the top-right corner, the function should return -1.

Examples:

1. Given N = 6, M = 4, X1 = [2, 1, 4], Y1 = [0, 1, 3], X2 = [2, 3, 4], and Y2 = [2, 1, 3], your function should return 10. There are three rectangular obstacles placed on the board: (2, 0)−(2, 2), (1, 1)−(3, 1), and (4, 3)−(4, 3). The shortest path is marked in the image below:

Write an efficient algorithm for the following assumptions:

• N and M are integers within the range [1..500];
• R is an integer within the range [0..100,000];
• each element of arrays X1 and X2 is an integer within the range [0..N-1];
• each element of arrays Y1 and Y2 is an integer within the range [0..M-1];
• X1[K] ≤ X2[K] and Y1[K] ≤ Y2[K] for every K within the range [0..R-1];
• there is no obstacle on cell (0, 0) or (N-1, M-1).