I have recently gained some traction from companies as far as getting to attempt coding assessments to prove I know a programming language and can navigate a problem by manipulating some data. I will be moving past the count down that is some added stress on what is already a stressful situation.
While sometimes I might feel off at the start, while I think maybe I am spending too much time on the prompt and not enough time starting to code. I may be rushing through examples and not catching the fact that the output is just to print something out as opposed to returning an actual result. This is a situation that has cost me some valuable minutes as I am returning what the problem is asking for only not printed out.
Another problem I am running into is best practices into whether or not I should move on from a problem. For example, I have had a few situations where I am able to solve most of the test cases, but not all of them. However, I have set a time limit for myself as there are sometimes more questions. I then move onto this question as I think the person reviewing my code might want to see how I work through a different problem. This could help them gain a better sense of how I think through different problems.
I have also spent all of my time working on one problem only to solve it with just enough time to get a glance at the second prompt. The downside to this is that I solve one problem completely, but they only get to see my coding and thought process on that problem. What if my string manipulation is better than creating a hash map or vice versa?
I am going to look into asking different people I run into on what they prefer from a potential candidate as far as working with multiple questions on an assessment. This will help me have a better strategy on if I should continue to split my time up between questions or ignore the clock and focus on the problem at hand until the job is done.
