It was my first software developer interview, and I am very grateful to have had an interview with Arista Networks. However, there are some moments during the whole process that didn't sit well with me.

• The HR Recruiter was kind and respectful but was a little too open with how happy the software team were for my application. It made me very happy to hear that, but I have never encountered this before.

• I was provided with a preamble of what to expect from the coding assessment, but the main things to look out for were: a) be familiar with GCC and GDB, and b) prioritize C coding review over C++, and understand how it is compiled at the machine level. I was led to believe that the software team were looking for someone with C++ experience, with more experience in terms of coding software rather than dedicated firmware. Sadly, I was not prepared for most of the interview topics and this made for some embarrassing questions on my part.

• Surprisingly, there was very little algorithm analysis. The interviewer even mentioned that this role was mainly for debugging purposes, which was not initially clarified or conveyed by the HR recruiter. I recommend asking the recruiter about the fundamentals of the role and what the team is looking for in a successful candidate prior to the coding assessment; the recruiter was not forthcoming at all in providing essential information.

Regardless, I was happy to have been acknowledged by a large company for my potential! This experience has made me understand how to better prioritize my preparation for successful interviews.

How is pointer arithmetic conducted for a Unix-based system?

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Can you find the line of code that is giving a segmentation error?