I usually don't write reviews after phone screens, but this process was horrible.

I have never been restricted to a specific coding language during the interview process at any company. However, Gusto made me choose between Ruby, Python, or JavaScript – none of which I am proficient in.

The question was super easy, but I couldn't get more than the first test to pass because I couldn't get my syntax correct.

I'm definitely not a bad programmer. I've interviewed at Unicorns and big tech companies, and received offers from some.

Taking into account my performance at other company interviews, Gusto is not using the correct evaluation method for their software engineer candidates. They are looking for language proficiency, not CS fundamentals proficiency.

I would not recommend wasting time on their interview (even for practice) unless you are proficient in one of the three languages stated above.

Given two hashmap-type data structures (expected, actual), compare the two maps and return the differences.

Map values can be another map or an integer value.

A map can look like the following:

Apple - 3 Orange Banana - 4 Strawberry - 7

Key Apple maps to 3. Key Orange maps to another map containing Banana mapped to 4 and Strawberry mapped to 7.