> In fact, you may be doing a disservice to yourself by filtering out slow thinkers or neurodivergent candidates that are likely to not shine thinking on their feet.

Yes, yes, 1000x yes. I was recently rejected after two technical interviews from a company that my former principal engineer that I worked directly under had referred me to. The position was to work under them again, which is why they referred me. The feedback I got from the recruiter was that it wasn’t the result they had expected, and I hadn’t achieved a specific number on their technical assessment. My understanding of this after some discussion was that the lower score was due to my speed in answering the leetcode style questions in the live interview with another engineer.

Here’s the secret I never brought up with the company while interviewing: In high, school, college, and for the CPA exam, I received accommodations for extended time and testing in isolation to reduce distractions from my ADHD. With those accommodations bringing me up to an even playing field with a neurotypical test taker, I was able to get into a good university, graduate with a bachelors and masters at the top of my class, and pass all four sections of the CPA exam on my first attempt. In the real working world, I have never needed extended time. I always deliver what is asked of me on time while I have witnessed neurotypicals show up to meetings with their work majorly behind.

I have always hesitated to bring this up with companies because I fear they will make the incorrect assumption that extended time on testing implicates that I will be a slower worker, which I have not found to be the case. I don’t want to introduce any biases for the interviewer to pick up. For whatever reason, testing with pressures absolutely slows down my thinking. In the real world, I have found when I face particularly tough problems, I find solutions after going on a 15 minute walk outside or while taking a shower in the morning. You cannot test for that style of problem solving in these high intensity algorithm technical interviews.

I certainly miss having a CPA license as evidence that I was a competent individual from my previous accounting career, which allowed all parties to skip technical questions in the interview and instead focus on fit for both sides. The software engineering industry suffers from too great of an emphasis on absolute performance levels in my opinion. To pass a section of the CPA exam, one needs to score a minimum of 75. What do you call an accountant that passed every section of the CPA exam with 75s? A CPA.

Why not just apply at companies that focus on take-home problems?

That’s my plan going forward. I’m in my first role as a self-taught engineer, so my network is still small. A coworker I worked closely with and had a great experience referred me to this company, so I went through with the process. Initially, the recruiter sent me a 2 hour take home leetcode challenge, which they waived after I responded I was surprised that they required an initial coding challenge for a referral.

It’s hard for me to tell which companies require those style of interviews, but I’m not working in the Bay Area and have found when applying to positions remotely there, they seem to have a much greater emphasis on leetcode than companies in my area.