Talking while you code

Keep the interviewer with you by explaining what each part is for, in short sentences.

What they’re listening for

• Can they follow your thinking?
• Do you explain why, not just what you're typing?
• Do you keep them in the loop without talking nonstop?

Stiff vs. natural

Moment: You're writing the main loop.

Sounds stiff

“For start comma end in sorted, open bracket, meetings, close bracket, colon. If merged and start less than or equal to merged minus one, one…”

Sounds natural

“So now I'm going through the meetings in order of start time. For each one, I check: does it start before the last merged meeting ends? If it does, they overlap, so I'll just stretch that one. If not, it's a new meeting, so it goes on the end.”

They can read the code. Your words should add the meaning.
“If it does… If not…” makes the logic easy to follow.

Moment: You've been typing in silence for about a minute.

Sounds stiff

“(more silence) … Sorry. Sorry, I'm just typing. Sorry.”

Sounds natural

“Sorry, I went a bit quiet there. I was getting the condition right. So what I have now is: if there's already a merged meeting and this one starts before it ends, we merge them.”

Silence happens. A short catch-up fixes it.
One “sorry” is plenty. Then move on.

Narrating a first draft

You
“I'll start with the function and an empty list for the results. And I'm going to write the plan as a comment, so I don't lose track.”
```
def merge_meetings(meetings):
    merged = []
    for start, end in sorted(meetings):
        # overlaps the last one? stretch it. otherwise, add it.
```
A comment as a plan shows your thinking even before the code works.

You

“Now the check. If there's a merged meeting already and this one starts before that one ends, they overlap. Otherwise it's a new meeting, so I add it.”

def merge_meetings(meetings):
    merged = []
    for start, end in sorted(meetings):
        if merged and start <= merged[-1][1]:
            # stretch the last meeting
        else:
            merged.append([start, end])
    return merged

Say the idea first, then type it.

You
“Does that make sense so far? I'll fill in the stretching part next.”
A quick check-in every few minutes, not after every line.
Interviewer
“Yep, makes sense.”

Narrating your code

“So what I'm doing here is…”Explaining the purpose of a block.
“This part handles…”Pointing at one case, like the first meeting.
“I'll write a quick comment so I don't forget.”Planning in the editor.
“Sorry, I went quiet there. I was thinking about…”Catching up after a silence.
“Does that make sense so far?”A short check-in.
“I'll come back to this part.”Parking a detail for later.

Now say it out loud

Rehearse with the AI interviewer and get feedback on your answers.

Practice live coding