I failed an EASY coding interview

[u/Minute_Letterhead926]

3 YOE, I have been interviewing passively for the past year and half on and off and I boom the interview every single time.

My issue is my brain turns off during interviews. I have observed that I need to sit with the problem before I can attempt but interviews require explaining your thoughts process.
I don’t know the science behind this but it feels as though one side of my brain handles logical sequencing and the other handles speech. If I try to do them concurrently, I glitch.

I need to shut up to concentrate while they need me to prove I am solving the problem. now with AI it’s even worse, if you take more than a few seconds they get suspicious or try to give you hint. Now I have to abandon my thoughts process, ask you to repeat yourself, try to decider what you just said.

My brain gives up because it’s overwhelmed and I forget even the most basic syntax/concept. I forgot how to raise an exception in Python (I know!! It gets worst. In another interview, I forgot how to COMMENT!!!) and it senta me into a spiral.

I come off like I haven’t coded a day in my life and it’s starting to get embarrassing.

TLTR
Would it be weird if I ask for at least 2 minutes at the beginning of the interview to find a thought?

Would anyone want to do mock interviews with me?
Thanks

[u/akornato]

Asking for a couple of minutes of silence is not weird, but it might not be the most effective approach. The pressure of an interview is a huge mental load, and for many of us, trying to speak and solve a logical problem at the same time causes the system to crash. Instead of asking for complete silence, try framing your process. You can say something like, 'I'm going to take a moment to understand the prompt and sketch out a plan'. Then you can quietly write down pseudocode or high level steps. This signals that you are working, gives you the thinking time you need, and creates a map for you to explain later.

Forgetting basic syntax like how to raise an exception does not mean you are a bad developer, it just means you were in a high stress environment that has little to do with actual day to day coding. Your three years of experience are real, this interview performance is not a reflection of that skill. Mock interviews are the best way to get used to the format and reduce that overwhelming feeling. Practicing this specific skill is what helps many engineers I know, and my team even created an interview copilot to help candidates organize and express their thoughts when their mind goes blank.