To Be Or Not To Be
A easy-tier problem at 63% community acceptance, tagged with . Reported in interviews at EPAM Systems and 2 others.
To Be Or Not To Be is a deceptively simple string problem that trips up candidates who overthink it. With a 63% acceptance rate, it's easy by difficulty but not a free pass, especially when Netflix, Google, and EPAM Systems have asked it in live assessments. The trick isn't complex, but missing the pattern costs you time and confidence you can't afford to lose in a real OA. If you hit this one cold and blank on the approach, StealthCoder surfaces the solution invisible to the proctor so you move on and bank those points.
Companies that ask "To Be Or Not To Be"
To Be Or Not To Be is the kind of problem that decides whether you pass. StealthCoder reads the problem on screen and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Invisible to screen share. The proctor sees nothing. Built by an Amazon engineer who realized the OA tests how well you memorized 200 problems, not how well you code.
Get StealthCoderThe problem tests whether you can recognize a straightforward string or character matching scenario without overcomplicating the solution. Most candidates either brute-force when a simple iteration suffices, or they second-guess themselves and add unnecessary state. The win is clean, direct code that handles the basic case first time. The 63% acceptance rate suggests a meaningful subset of candidates either misread the problem, fail on edge cases, or timeout on a suboptimal approach. Common slip-ups include not handling empty inputs, off-by-one errors, or trying to optimize prematurely. In a live OA, time pressure amplifies these mistakes. StealthCoder hedges the moment you realize you're stuck: it reads the problem, generates a working solution, and you paste clean code before the proctor notices hesitation.
You know the problem.
Make sure you actually pass it.
To Be Or Not To Be recycles across companies for a reason. It's easy-tier, and most candidates blank under the timer. StealthCoder is the hedge: an AI overlay invisible during screen share. It reads the problem and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Built by an Amazon engineer who realized the OA tests how well you memorized 200 problems, not how well you code. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
To Be Or Not To Be interview FAQ
Is this problem actually easy or are the difficulty ratings wrong?+
It's labeled easy and the acceptance rate backs that up at 63%. But 37% of submissions still fail, usually from misreading the problem statement, ignoring edge cases, or writing inefficient code under time pressure. Easy doesn't mean trivial in a live OA.
Do Google and Netflix still ask this one in their assessments?+
Yes, it's in their reported question banks. It's a screening-level problem, not a hard system design round. These companies use it to filter for basic coding competence and attention to detail early in the funnel.
What's the actual trick to solving this?+
There isn't a clever trick. The solution is straightforward once you parse the problem correctly. The real challenge is not overthinking it, handling all edge cases, and coding it cleanly without bugs in 5 to 10 minutes under pressure.
Should I spend interview prep time on this problem?+
Spend 10 minutes understanding the pattern, then move on. It's low-leverage for grinding because it doesn't teach you new data structures or algorithms. Save prep time for medium and hard problems. This is a confidence builder before your OA.
What if I blank on this during a real assessment?+
That's where StealthCoder comes in. It runs invisibly during your assessment, reads the problem, and hands you a working solution in seconds. You paste it and move to the next question without the proctor knowing you ever hesitated.
Want the actual problem statement? View "To Be Or Not To Be" on LeetCode →