Task: Explain Leetcode Solutions

Introduction

In a live technical interview, when you're explaining your thoughts, you should describe what you are doing in the moment.

That usually means using:

• Present simple → for logic and general rules

• Present continuous → for actions happening right now

Task Instructions

Imagine you’re reviewing a candidate’s response during a technical interview.

They’re solving a LeetCode-style problem and explaining their approach as they write the code.

However, 3 of their sentences use the wrong verb tense for a live interview setting.

Your task:

1. Identify the 3 incorrect sentences

2. Rewrite each one using the correct tense
   → either present simple or present continuous

Candidate's Final Code

seen = set()

for num in nums:
    complement = target - num
    if complement in seen:
        return True
    seen.add(num)

return False

Candidate Explanation

I’ll start by creating an empty set called ‘seen’

[Candidate writes line 1...]

I think of using a for loop to go through each number in the array.

[Candidate writes for loop...]

Okay, let me explain the loop...

For each number, I calculate the complement by subtracting it from the target. If the complement is existing in the set, that means we have found a pair, and I return true.

Otherwise, I add the current number to the set and move on.

And if we don’t find anything by the end of the loop, I returned false.