During the phone screen, I was given a HackerRank-type problem. You know, the ones with a long statement where there's nothing challenging to do, just a job to get done.

I wrote the working code and covered all the edge cases elegantly and in detail. However, the interviewer complained that there were too many if-else statements in my code.

I explained that I was nervous and simply trying to cover all edge cases. Of course, I could optimize it a bit more to make it cleaner. Despite this, I received a rejection on the same day.

I don't know what they want. I think it's unrealistic to expect complete, production-quality code in the stressful environment of an interview.

LCA