The question was fair. I explained my solution, and they asked me to code a different solution, which I did. They added on to the problem, asking how I would implement an optimal solution if my code was called multiple times. This was the solution I had explained at the very beginning, so I reexplained it.

The interview ended early, so I asked many questions. The interviewer was nice about answering all of them.

Overall, the interview went as expected, albeit a little disorganized. I interviewed recently and have not heard back yet about the results.

Find the minimum distance between two items in a list.