What does it mean to have good communication in an interview?

What good communication looks like in an interview isn't too different from what it looks like in "real life":

1. You are truly listening to what they say
2. You are receptive of feedback
3. You have inviting body language and communicate with enthusiasm, interest, and energy
4. You aren't being rude and cutting people off
5. You are communicating proactively and explaining esoteric terms/ideas as you go along instead of leaving them confused and forcing them to ask something like, "Wait, how does your code work...?"

#1 and #2 sound obvious, but I have seen a surprising amount of candidates fail this. Back when I was at Robinhood, I had a candidate who was far more junior than me (he had 5 less years of experience in Android than I did with 0 notable side projects) push back against my Android coding feedback and say that I was wrong. I racked my brain like 5+ times to see how I was wrong and was very polite about saying things like, "Oh, maybe this doesn't work, let me think about it..." (after all, I am not perfect and am wrong all the time), but I couldn't figure it out.

We went back and forth on the feedback for around 20 minutes as the candidate coded out his incorrect approach. Eventually he realized that it didn't work and very sheepishly admitted I was right in a weird indirect way. I was completely flabbergasted as it was such a stupid thing for him to do and he doubled down on it repeatedly as I desperately tried to save him. I gave him the lowest score and told the hiring committee that we should under 0 circumstances ever hire this person.

Anyways, when it comes actionable items to improving at communication, I recommend the following:

1. Take the Effective Communication course: [Course] Effective Communication For Engineers
2. Do more 1 on 1 meetings and follow best practice advice to get the most value from them:
   1. "How to have more impactful/deeper Taro 1:1 member match convos?"
   2. [Masterclass] How To Have Impactful 1 on 1 Meetings
3. Do mock interviews (pair up with folks in the Taro community!): https://www.jointaro.com/networking/?selectedServices=Mock+Interviews

• Be structured in your approach to the problem
• Consider alternatives and talk about their relative importance
• Use tentative language, especially when it comes to feedback
• Invite feedback/ask questions

Also, IMO writing is a huge part of good communication. Showing strong examples of writing is a huge plus.