I don't really think that's accurate. In my last interview cycle, I aced the livecoding portion at each interview and didn't practice any leetcode problems at all. In my normal workflow I write utility scripts in Python using only the standard library pretty regularly. If you know how to write complete, small programs using only the standard library of some language, you'll do fine on livecoding interviews. A lot of people struggle to do this because they only know how to work inside of a framework.
Maybe they didn't give you the same sets of problems most companies use.
Last time I went through any of these one of the problems was implementing a priority queue, for which I would have to write a min-heap on the spot. There's no chance I'd be able to do it on 45 minutes with an interviewer breathing down my neck.
In other situations I had easier ones. I don't remember the problems especifically but I recall one I googled after the interview and the answer was using two-pointers fast/slow to iterate through a list. I spent maybe 20 minutes tryng a couple different approaches and that one never occurred to me. Last time I had to use a two-pointer solution for a problem was at uni, which I left 15 years ago.
But then again they could still force you to use another language (as I had to during my interviews) and even though strict syntax isn’t required it still throws the candidate off.
I don't really think that's accurate. In my last interview cycle, I aced the livecoding portion at each interview and didn't practice any leetcode problems at all. In my normal workflow I write utility scripts in Python using only the standard library pretty regularly. If you know how to write complete, small programs using only the standard library of some language, you'll do fine on livecoding interviews. A lot of people struggle to do this because they only know how to work inside of a framework.
Maybe they didn't give you the same sets of problems most companies use.
Last time I went through any of these one of the problems was implementing a priority queue, for which I would have to write a min-heap on the spot. There's no chance I'd be able to do it on 45 minutes with an interviewer breathing down my neck.
In other situations I had easier ones. I don't remember the problems especifically but I recall one I googled after the interview and the answer was using two-pointers fast/slow to iterate through a list. I spent maybe 20 minutes tryng a couple different approaches and that one never occurred to me. Last time I had to use a two-pointer solution for a problem was at uni, which I left 15 years ago.
But then again they could still force you to use another language (as I had to during my interviews) and even though strict syntax isn’t required it still throws the candidate off.