Accolite interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview

SDE - 1

Accolite
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4 rounds | 9 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
I started with python specialization course. After that, switched to C++ and started learning DSA from geeksforgeeks and from other online resources. Along with that I learned some CS fundamentals as OOPS, DBMS, OS and computer networks .
Application story
I applied in on-campus placement process. There were total 3 rounds. First was technical test, then technical interview and last is HR interview.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I was rejected from this role because I was directly writing efficient code and not discussing bruite force approach first. And in HR round I was not answering fluently.
Preparation
Duration: 6 months
Topics: Data Structures, OOPS, Operating system, Computer networks, DBMS
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Focus on DSA practice
Tip 2 : Make development projects
Tip 3 : Practice regularly

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: 7 CGPA
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Try to follow a basic format and highlight important achievements
Tip 2 : Mention atleast 2 good projects

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration120 minutes
Interview date5 Sep 2021
Coding problem2

Test was for 120 minutes. Environment was good because it was online test.

1. Ninja Game

Hard
20m average time
75% success
0/120
Asked in companies
AtlassianAmazonMeesho

Ninja and his friend are playing a game. They are having ‘N’ piles and each pile contains ‘A[i]’ amount of stones in it. Ninja will make the first move.

In each move, a player can choose any pile and remove any number of stones ( at least one ) from that pile. The player who cannot make a move loses the game.

Assuming both players play optimally, output 1 if Ninja wins the game and 0 if Ninja loses the game.

Example :
N = 3
A = [ 3, 4, 5 ]

Explanation : 

One of the optimal ways to play the game is : 

Ninja removes 3 stones from the first pile : [ 0, 4, 5 ].
Friend removes 3 stones from the second pile : [ 0, 1, 5 ].
Ninja removes 3 stones from the third pile : [ 0, 1, 1 ].
Friend removes 1 stone from the second pile : [ 0, 0, 1 ].
Ninja removes 1 stones from the third pile : [ 0, 0, 0 ].

Thus Ninja wins the game here.
Problem approach

Use hp[i][j] to store the min hp needed at position (i, j), then do the calculation from right-bottom to left-up.

Note: adding dummy row and column would make the code cleaner.

Try solving now

2. Distinct Subsequences

Easy
0/40
Asked in companies
MakeMyTripInnovaccerMicrosoft

Given two strings S and T consisting of lower case English letters. The task is to count the distinct occurrences of T in S as a subsequence.

A subsequence is a sequence generated from a string after deleting some or no characters of the string without changing the order of the remaining string characters. (i.e. “ace” is a subsequence of “abcde” while “aec” is not).

For example, for the strings S = “banana” and T=”ban”, output is 3 as T appears in S as below three subsequences.

[ban], [ba n], [b an ]

Problem approach

First create a queue of pair and push only those elements in the queue which is rotten, after that run while loop until queue is empty and pop elements and push nearby elements which is not rotten and make them rotten.
Return the count that how much time that while loop running.

Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration60 minutes
Interview date19 Aug 2021
Coding problem3

It was 10 am, and interviewer was good and I was comfortable in that situation.

1. Reverse Linked List

Moderate
15m average time
85% success
0/80
Asked in companies
WalmartHCL TechnologiesInfo Edge India (Naukri.com)

Given a singly linked list of integers. Your task is to return the head of the reversed linked list.

For example:
The given linked list is 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4-> NULL. Then the reverse linked list is 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1 -> NULL and the head of the reversed linked list will be 4.
Follow Up :
Can you solve this problem in O(N) time and O(1) space complexity?
Problem approach

Initialize three pointers prev as NULL, curr as head, and next as NULL.
Iterate through the linked list. In a loop, do the following:
Before changing the next of curr, store the next node 
next = curr -> next
Now update the next pointer of curr to the prev 
curr -> next = prev 
Update prev as curr and curr as next 
prev = curr 
curr = next

Try solving now

2. Is SubSequence

Easy
10m average time
90% success
0/40
Asked in companies
Quadrical AIJosh Technology GroupUnthinkable Solutions

You have been given two strings ‘STR1’ and ‘STR2’.

Your task is to find if ‘STR1’ is a subsequence of ‘STR2’.

A subsequence of a string is a new string that can be derived from the original string by deleting some characters (can be none) without changing the relative ordering of other characters.

Example:
‘ACE’ is a subsequence of ‘ABCDE’ because ‘ACE’ can be formed by deleting ‘B’ and ‘D’ without changing the relative order of characters. ‘ADB’ is not a subsequence of ‘ABCDE’ because we can get ‘ABD’ from ‘ABCDE’ but not ‘ADB’ and in ‘ADB’ relative order of ‘B’ and ‘D’ are different from original strings.
Note:
1.Strings ‘STR1’ and ‘STR2’ consists only of English uppercases.

2.Length of string ‘STR2’ will always be greater than or equal to the length of string ‘STR1’.

Example:

For example, the given ‘STR1’ is ‘BAE’ and ‘STR2’ is ‘ABADE’. 
String ‘STR1’ is a subsequence of string ‘STR2’ because ‘BAE’ can be formed by deleting ‘A’ and ‘D’ from ‘ABADE’ and the relative ordering of the characters of the string ‘ABADE’ persists.

subsequence

Problem approach

Run from end of both strings and each time if s[i]==t[j] then i-- and j-- and if s[i]!=t[j] then j--. If in the end i comes to be -1 it means whole string is found in sequence in t

Try solving now

3. DBMS

Where do we use DBMS?
Some SQL queries

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Read DBMS thoroughly
Tip 2 : Practice SQL queries
Tip 3 : If you know SQL, its a plus point.

03
Round
Easy
Video Call
Duration40 minutes
Interview date10 Aug 2021
Coding problem3

Timing was 12 pm.
Environment was good.
Interviewer was very friendly.

1. Set Matrix Zeros

Easy
30m average time
65% success
0/40
Asked in companies
AmazonDunzoGoldman Sachs

You are given an N x M integer matrix. Your task is to modify this matrix in place so that if any cell contains the value 0, then all cells in the same row and column as that cell should also be set to 0.

Requirements:

  • If a cell in the matrix has the value 0, set all other cells in that cell's row and column to 0.
  • You should perform this modification in place (without using additional matrices).

You must do it in place.

For Example:

If the given grid is this:
[7, 19, 3]
[4, 21, 0]

Then the modified grid will be:
[7, 19, 0]
[0, 0,  0]
Problem approach

In this , first approach i told to store which column and rows has zeroes in a separate matrix and then run a loop again , and make row and column zero containing zeroes. Interviewer asked me to optimize this by reducing the space complexity. So next approach i gave was that we can store zero at 0th index of every column and row if any zeroes exist in that column or row.

Try solving now

2. Square Submatrix with sum less than or equal to K

Moderate
30m average time
70% success
0/80
Asked in companies
MicrosoftWolters KluwerTrilogy Innovations

Given a 2-dimensional matrix of size ‘N’ x ‘M’ and an integer K. Find the size of the largest square sub-matrix whose sum is less than or equal to K. The size of a matrix is the product of rows and columns in it.

A sub-matrix is a matrix obtained from the given matrix by deletion of several (possibly, zero or all) rows/columns from the beginning and several (possibly, zero or all) rows/columns from the end. A square matrix is a matrix which has the same number of rows and columns.

For Example

example

Note
If there is no square sub-matrix with a sum less than or equal to K, then return 0.
Problem approach

nice r*r*c attempt, using prefix sum.

I looped through height of every rectangle starting on index I (looped ) and then moved from left to right.

Try solving now

3. Theory Questions

What are OOPS pillars?
What is the difference in encapsulation and abstraction?
How do you apply abstraction with an example and code?
Some more problems from abstraction in deep.

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Read OOPS concepts very thoroughly
Tip 2 : Focus on abstraction pillar more.

04
Round
Medium
HR Round
Duration20 minutes
Interview date10 Aug 2021
Coding problem1

In this round, he asked me very basic HR interview questions as why do you want to join this company? where do you see yourself in 5 years? what are your expectations from company?

1. Basic HR Questions

Why do you want to join this company?

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 

What are your expectations from company?

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Read about company in detail
Tip 2 : Know about your role very well
Tip 3 : Ask some questions from your side as well.

Here's your problem of the day

Solving this problem will increase your chance to get selected in this company

Skill covered: Programming

How do you remove whitespace from the start of a string?

Choose another skill to practice
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