Code Room
Vibe codingHardvc-g177
Subject Ai code reviewLevel Senior–Staff~22 minCommon in Concurrency interviewsIndustries Software development, Technology

Question

You asked an AI assistant to add an atomic "transfer balance between two accounts" helper to a Go ledger service. It produced this, claiming it's safe because both accounts are locked before mutation. Review it.

go
type Account struct {	mu      sync.Mutex	Balance int64	ID      string} func Transfer(from, to *Account, amount int64) error {	from.mu.Lock()	defer from.mu.Unlock()	to.mu.Lock()	defer to.mu.Unlock() 	if from.Balance < amount {		return errors.New("insufficient funds")	}	from.Balance -= amount	to.Balance += amount	return nil}

Under light testing it passes. In production, the service freezes under load. What's wrong and how would you have caught it before merge?

What a strong answer looks like

Treat the AI’s output as a draft to verify, not an answer to trust. Name the specific flaw and the input that triggers it, say how you’d catch it — tests, edge cases, reading critically — and how you’d re-prompt or decompose to get it right.

Describe your solution

Vibe coding: describe the solution in plain language (or narrate it) and the coach grades your approach. Generating runnable code from your description is coming next.

Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.