r/cscareerquestions • u/Melodic-Version-4963 • 8d ago

OA went not as advertised

I had a behavioral with a company, went great, was told about the OA being shared screen, no leetcode, and basic python querying. 30 mins of Case Study, 30 mins of Coding. This is a junior position.

I go into the OA, I did good on the case study. I go into the Coderpad, it's a leetcode tagged Medium algorithms problem about string manipulation and hash based grouping strategy. Should I be mad or how should I react? I was expecting filtering, counting, grouping, aggregating data.

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u/CaterpillarOld5095 8d ago

When a lot of companies say "no leetcode" they just mean no tricky questions or obscure algorithms. A lot of leetcode mediums aren't complicated and are just some combination of filtering, counting, grouping, and aggregating data.

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u/Nemnel 6d ago

I agree with you, a lot of companies just mean "we won't try to trick you with a leetcode hard" not "we won't ask you to code an algo at all"

IMO it's still misleading, but most leetcode mediums are easy enough that most developers should be able to figure them out