Interviewers score your reasoning, not just your final code. Silence reads as "stuck", even when you are not.
In a coding round, a correct answer arrived at silently scores worse than a slightly-imperfect answer arrived at with clear reasoning. The interviewer is evaluating how you think — and they cannot evaluate what they cannot hear.
Before you type, talk through what you understand, the brute-force idea, and why it is too slow. Then propose the optimisation. This lets the interviewer course-correct you early — a small nudge at minute three saves a dead end at minute twenty.
"I could use a hashmap for O(1) lookups at the cost of O(n) space — given the constraints that is fine" is exactly the sentence they are listening for. State the complexity of each approach out loud and justify the one you pick.
Going silent when stuck is the worst move. Say what you have tried, what you suspect, and what you would check next. Interviewers routinely give hints — but only to candidates who have shown them where they are stuck.
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