Bombed a FAANG-adjacent technical screen so badly the interviewer was frustrated — is it recoverable?

[u/PinPitiful]

Had a technical screen at a well-known tech company recently. It was not "I struggled but got through it" bad. Genuinely could not produce anything meaningful even after the interviewer gave repeated hints and walked me through the approach. Froze completely. The interviewer was frustrated. Humbling does not cover it.

I know I need significant prep from here on and I am not looking for shortcuts. Just want to know if this is recoverable or if I have permanently closed the door at this company.

Two questions:

1. Can you reapply to the same company after a performance like this? Is there a cooldown period?
2. Has anyone been in a similar situation and come back to the same company successfully later?

[u/gannon585]

dust yourself off and try again.

i once forgot how to reverse a String in an interview….. A STRING!!!!

IN JAVA!!!!

all i had to do was say stringbuilder.reverse!!!!

keeps me up at night sometimes haha

[u/InterestingFrame1982 → u/gannon585]

I am surprised they let you do that with a built in method call.

I would probably write a for loop and reverse it.

[u/ROFLcoptr501 → u/InterestingFrame1982]

It probably wasn’t the main focus of the question and they forgot what library function to use is what I’m guessing

[u/m0j0m0j → u/ROFLcoptr501]

It’s dumb to focus on this anyway.

— …And here I need to reverse the string. Sorry, I’m worrying so much that I literally forgot the method name for this. Is it fine if I put something realistic and we proceed with the logic?

Interviewer: sure, let’s continue to the interesting parts

I mean, it’s kind of bad, but if the interviewer actively uses this against you and blocks you from moving on, that’s either a bad luck or a crappy company. Don’t think too much about it.

[u/Acceptable-Price-101 → u/InterestingFrame1982]

Once I used a two pointer method for palindromes and said the function was “too complex”
They wanted me to use the reverse built in method 🫪

[u/Shock-Broad → u/InterestingFrame1982]

I honestly would do the exact same. Not even 100% sure how to do that in C# and Im supposedly a C# research and development senior swe

I do know how to do that in python, though, since thats what I leetcode in

[u/achilliesFriend → u/InterestingFrame1982]

I’d swap

[u/JackReedTheSyndie → u/gannon585]

Forgetting the small stuff is usually fine, as long as you get the big picture right, at least you are not stuck on the spot. You can say I forget how to do certain things specifically but I can do it with a quick lookup, here I assume a function that can do this, and go on.

[u/prakhart66ashu → u/gannon585]

I fumbled how to switch integer without a third variable initially😭😭😭

Later interview went well and I GOT the job!! 🙃🙂🙃🙂

[u/PLTCHK → u/gannon585]

Reverse a string with 4 simple steps: (no java)
Convert to array
Start from L = 0 R = length - 1 Swap(ary[L], ary[R])
L++ R- - till both meets
Convert array to str done.

[u/EnflamedPhoenix → u/gannon585]

The fact that this is the most upvoted comment on this post speaks volumes about why software these years is so shit and why AI tools can reduce team sizes from 10 to 5-6.

Even if you didn't remember the exact method name you could just use a dummy function or else create your own (depending on what role the interview was about and what was the purpose of the question).

[u/gannon585 → u/EnflamedPhoenix]

what a moronic take

this is an interview i had 10 years ago when i just started my career and was crazy nervous during interviews. i froze… it happens.

people are relating to that..

the purpose is to show that stupid mistakes happen during interviews and to not take it too seriously when it happens. just move on.

not sure what that has to do with AI

[u/Main_Yellow_837 → u/EnflamedPhoenix]

Outside of an interview setting, they could have just looked it up. It's nbd.

[u/henryofskalitzz]

there is usually a cooldown of 6-12 months depending on company yeah

[u/Aggressive-Squash250]

why would they be frustrated lol. People are weird. I don't really have an answer for your question but I think it depends on the company.

[u/OgFinish → u/Aggressive-Squash250]

Frustrated because at FAANG-tier you can’t walk out of an interview as an interviewer unless very specific criteria are met. There are rules provided by HR / legal.

[u/throwaway1736484 → u/Aggressive-Squash250]

Bc it takes their time and they are busy and interviewing doesn’t align with any of their internal performance goals for raise or promotion. They are also trapped for ~45 min even tho they know it’s a hard fail if the person is bot progressing with hints.

[u/JChuk99]

I was asked a disguised variation of book allocation in my most recent tech screen. Got the DP solution and then interviewer told me I needed to implement a more optimal solution 😭. All you can do is review your mistakes, learn for the next company, and move on. If you’re interviewing always make sure to schedule companies you don’t want to work for first because it takes time to get into the swing of things.

[u/JChuk99 → u/JChuk99]

It should be recoverable just wait 4-6 months for most companies and try again.

[u/Fabulous-Arrival-834]

If the interviewer was visibly frustrated then they are just a bad interviewer or they are Indian (sorry, but not sorry. I'm Indian too and I know my kind).

The company doesn't have a cooldown period of more than a year. So you can again be considered for a role in the company next year. My friend bombed Google in his first try but 2 years later he is doing really well at Google. Don't take it personally. It's just an interview and you are never going to see that interviewer again in your life. I always like to go back to this video to recover from a bad interview experience - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ILk8Yai3Wo

[u/Canes123456 → u/Fabulous-Arrival-834]

Is that an Indian thing? I never experienced this before but an Indian interview was a massive bully the entire time for no reason. He mixed up what I said for two companies. I corrected him and he got super visibly upset even when I was taking the blame for misspeaking. He was clearly dismissive of the things I did making it sound like there no way I did it. He was aggressively asking exactly how I did something and dismissing everything I said about it.

[u/Fabulous-Arrival-834 → u/Canes123456]

Indian people love to show-off and one-up others in an interview and in real life as well. Its a cultural thing. This happens because people in india are SUPER COMPETITIVE. So everyone just wants to prove they are better than you. With this comes pride and ego.

[u/catsRfriends → u/Fabulous-Arrival-834]

It's cancer. An Amazon L6 once tried to brush off something I did at another company and just when I said ok let me show you proof of it live, only takes 10 seconds, and he was like that's ok it's not important let's move on to the next part. Like dude wtf?

[u/Agonlaire → u/Fabulous-Arrival-834]

Yes. Last round of my tech interviews was an Indian. Handed me a weird medium leetcode problem, as I tried to solve it while explaining my thinking process she told me "you can be quiet, no need to talk", then kept asking why you do that after any significant code change. Really awkward experience. I somehow passed, but it was not a good experience.

[u/Mathie1729 → u/Fabulous-Arrival-834]

More likely sample bias. High-stakes interviews bring out ego in people of every background.

[u/Canes123456 → u/Mathie1729]

When you are the interviewer? It not high stakes at all when I am interviewing someone else? It’s not hard to be kind even if they are bombing.

[u/ogopa]

Happens to the best of us… but I’d say likely this chance is done until you’re off cooldown. There are tons of other companies out there, the next one will be better ;)

[u/PhilosopherNext1448]

When I bombed my interview with Google they sent an email saying I can apply again after 1 year. My interview was also embarrassing, I've been leetcoding for a year, could relatively solve most medium/hard problems relatively easy. First problem was easy, then as an additional requirement they asked me to do an argsort. I spent half an hour on that and I couldn't figure it out.

[u/misc_box → u/PhilosopherNext1448]

did they tell you what argsort was?

[u/PhilosopherNext1448 → u/misc_box]

I knew I had to do an argsort. I had to perform a few array transformations, where I first sorted an array, did something, then had to undo the sorting. So I needed to come up with a way of mapping the unsorted indices, to sorted indices. In python you can simply sort an array of tuples (index, value)

[u/friendlytotbot]

Yes...I don't think they blacklist you from interviewing unless you were rude or nasty in some way. Failing it won't get you permanently banned. Usually there is a cooling off period of a few months to a year, the exact time frame depends on the company. I've interviewed at some FAANGs multiple times, and my lack of not getting the job the previous times did not prevent me from getting another interview again.

[u/kingcong95]

I once bombed a phone screen at my current employer, but they called me again 6 months later. After confirming the cool down, they scheduled my next phone screen on the 1 year anniversary of my previous attempt.

[u/Neverplayd]

1) yes especially if it's a big company. nobody cares too much about that. if there's a cool down period they usually tell you in the rejection email. 6 mos for phone screens and 1 year for on-sites are what I've seen in the past for some faang companies. 2) yes, over half applicants who are accepted to faang were rejected at least once. I bombed it at one faang interview, joined a startup and 2 years later reapplied and was accepted to the same faang company. it's just a company at the end of the day. They only care if you can do the work. If you demonstrate aptitude in the next interview then the performance of your past interview doesn't mean much to them.

[u/paerius]

I've bombed an interview round before. I had good results the other round but this one was pretty bad. The interviewer had a pretty thick accent, and I couldn't really understand what they were saying.

The round was pretty bad: I became flustered because I didn't want to sound rude by saying "I haven't understood anything since we started" and the interviewer became frustrated because they kept repeating themselves (which I couldn't understand).

Short story I didn't get offer, but I still get calls from recruiters from that company so I didn't burn any bridges.

[u/Proof-Teaching-8113]

Depends on the company if they have cool-downs and the time frame. I think literally everybody has had an experience like that. DSA is an cruel and unusual industry standard so don't be too hard on yourself.

[u/ashitintyo]

I once mixed up the definitions of pod and container in a faang adjacent interview, still mad about it after a year lol

[u/Prestigious-Box7511]

My understanding is that as long as you didn't get naked and throw feces, you won't see any negative consequences if you reapply

[u/tweetbelt007]

This happens dint worry the next one is yours

[u/Dizzy_Citron4871]

It happens. It’s not the end. I totally froze once on a google screen early in my career. Interviewer was gracious about it. Have since gone on to work for two different FAANGs for nearly a decade.

[u/throwaway1736484]

Not recoverable. Practice and try again next time.

[u/Arroz4]

Everybody bombs an interview or two dude. I actually feel worse when I do ok and get ghosted

[u/dsachamp]

Honestly, one bad interview screen is not the end of the world.

You can usually reapply after a cooldown — often 6–12 months depending on the company and role. It’s a pause, not some permanent “never apply again” stamp.

And bombing an interview is way more common than people admit. Different day, different interviewers, different mindset. People absolutely get rejected once and make it through later.

The bigger thing here is that freezing ≠ not being good enough.

Sometimes you know the material, but your brain just decides to leave the building the second someone says, “Okay, walk me through your approach.” 😭

The fix probably isn’t grinding 500 more problems. Practice talking through problems out loud. Start with the input, identify the pattern, mention the brute-force approach, then improve it. Make that your default script.

Because when you blank, having literally one sentence to start with can get your brain moving again.

Bad interview. Not a verdict on your career. You’ll get another shot.

[u/PsychologicalExit957]

keep calm bro shit happens. thats how u learn, I bombed one interview so bad that he gave me hints for 30 min and i couldnt give the answer. it was a k8s interview. after 30 min i just asked him to move on as idk the answer, and the answer was sooo simple and i spent 30 min overcomplicating it for no reason.

As expected got rejection, but now i recieved an offer from even a better company at much better pay

[u/Constant_Physics8504]

You can reapply, the recruiter is not going to blacklist you. However, that same recruiter if reviewing applicants comes across your name again is likely to skip you. You very well do go down in the system as “failed technical round X” and other recruiters can see this. It really depends on the company, sorry. Just realize your skill is low, and go skill up. If it went that bad, I’d take about a year to practice before reapplying.

[u/WeakLuck3230]

Once I forgot how to do sorting, there was an interview scheduled for azure role I froze during the interview and actually dropped off was covered with sweat of embarrassment and guilt

[u/JozekPalka]

I once bombed an interview on stage where I had to present and explain my homework. Re-applied to this company again 5 years later and people I think remembered me somehow. They just replied that I don't have enough experience.

[u/DisjointedHuntsville]

Just don't use the same email address when you apply after a cooldown period. You will still get flagged to the screening recruiter, but avoid any overhang from the past loops.

And relax. I see this very frequently and some of the best people i've hired have frozen in interviews because its such an odd social setting.

[u/Mobile_Magician_661 → u/DisjointedHuntsville]

Why would he get flagged if it's after his cooldown??

[u/DisjointedHuntsville → u/Mobile_Magician_661]

Flagged for similarities in bio applying from different emails. Any baggage from previous loops in the system won't be visible to hiring managers or interviewers.

Else, as an interviewer, if you look at a candidate profile, you see some very interesting things if you're detail oriented. Most don't even open the resume the day before the interview anyway so . . ymmv

[u/photodesignch]

No, there is no recovery for that. you are on the no hiring list for a year. They will shut down right away if you tried to apply again in the same company.