Uber Software Engineer interview experience

I laid out a brute-force approach almost immediately—within the first few minutes—and the conversation then shifted into grinding toward something better. The interviewer kept signaling that there was a more efficient solution available, so it wasn’t just about writing code; it was about improving it under gentle pressure.

I spent a long stretch—around 40 minutes—trying to land the optimal direction. When I couldn’t quite get the optimization across, the interviewer essentially told me to stop fighting for the perfect improvement and just code the approach I already had. That moment lowered