>> once I mess up during interviews, and it's all downhill from there
I have witnessed this. I was asked to write code for LRU cache [1]. I started out wrong, thinking that LRU caches "Least Recently Used" items (in other words, most recently used need to be discarded). It turns out that LRU cache "discards" LRU items. I wonder if the name is actually a misnomer.
I caught this extremely quickly though on the very first hint and then tried to confirm the definition multiple times, but the interviewer had mental blocks by that time, nodding his head without even listening to what I was asking.
I have witnessed this. I was asked to write code for LRU cache [1]. I started out wrong, thinking that LRU caches "Least Recently Used" items (in other words, most recently used need to be discarded). It turns out that LRU cache "discards" LRU items. I wonder if the name is actually a misnomer.
I caught this extremely quickly though on the very first hint and then tried to confirm the definition multiple times, but the interviewer had mental blocks by that time, nodding his head without even listening to what I was asking.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRU_cache