Yeah, I consider the demand for people to talk out loud during algorithms interviews to be an anti-pattern. It is something I can do (albeit with some difficulty) and excel at interviews as a result but I know engineers who are great at algorithms and at normal design communication who fail interviews because the interviewer doesn’t like their frequent silence while thinking or coding.
> was having a bad day
Then ask for a reschedule or try to get it as the first thing in a day.
> I found the interview process stressful, or felt nervous or uncomfortable in the moment
Need to grow confidence. Walk into interview - like you own it. You are the best. Think - you know everything {only during interview :-) } but also keep an open mind. Don't think - it's an interview - take it as you are going to teach them about what they will ask.
Irrespective of this - mistakes will happen. Fail -> learn -> try again.
After a few bad interviews I got the hang of it and aced a couple algos interviews. I’ve worked as a developer for 8 years, have tons of software in production, have some open source contributions and have worked productively on several teams.
Interviewing is a skill. I understand why a company wouldn’t hire someone who doesn’t pass a programming test but failing a programming test doesn’t mean you can’t do the job.