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

Software Engineer

Bloomberg
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5 rounds | 8 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 2 months
Topics: Data Structures, Algorithms, OOPs, OS, DBMS
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Practice DSA from Leetcode, Geeksforgeeks, etc.
Tip 2 : Go through the subjects from Geeksforgeeks, Javatpoint, etc.

Application process
Where: Linkedin
Eligibility: 0-2 years experience
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Keep it one-pager
Tip 2 : Try to cover maximum points by keeping each crisp. No need to go into details.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration90 minutes
Interview date10 May 2022
Coding problem2

1. Min Jumps

Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
IBMAmerican ExpressSamsung R&D Institute

You live in a Ninja town which is in the form of a N * M grid. In this town, people travel from one place to another by jumping over the buildings which are present in each cell of the grid. It is Christmas eve, and Santa wants to give gifts and chocolates to the kids who live in the building which is present at the cell (N - 1, M - 1). Initially, Santa is present on cell (0, 0). Since Santa is in a hurry, help him find a path from starting point to the endpoint with the least amount of time.

The Santa may go only from one building to any of its adjacent buildings which is present either to the right or to the bottom or bottom right cell i.e. if the current position is (x, y), he may go to (x + 1, y + 1) or (x + 1, y) or (x, y + 1) given that the new coordinates are in the grid. The time taken to reach from one building to another is equal to the absolute difference between the heights of buildings.

Note:

1. The heights of the buildings are positive.
2. Santa starts from the cell (0, 0) and he has to reach the building (N - 1, M - 1).
3. Santa cannot leave the grid at any point of time.
Problem approach

Don't remember the questions as of now. 
The questions would be long but try to get the logic of each and implement them in a most optimized approach.

Try solving now

2. Search In Rotated Sorted Array

Moderate
30m average time
65% success
0/80
Asked in companies
FreshworksExpedia GroupPayPal

Aahad and Harshit always have fun by solving problems. Harshit took a sorted array consisting of distinct integers and rotated it clockwise by an unknown amount. For example, he took a sorted array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and if he rotates it by 2, then the array becomes: [4, 5, 1, 2, 3].

After rotating a sorted array, Aahad needs to answer Q queries asked by Harshit, each of them is described by one integer Q[i]. which Harshit wanted him to search in the array. For each query, if he found it, he had to shout the index of the number, otherwise, he had to shout -1.

For each query, you have to complete the given method where 'key' denotes Q[i]. If the key exists in the array, return the index of the 'key', otherwise, return -1.

Note:

Can you solve each query in O(logN) ?
Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date20 May 2022
Coding problem2

1. Vertical Sum in a Binary Tree

Hard
45m average time
50% success
0/120
Asked in companies
HSBCOracleSnapdeal Ltd.

Given a binary tree having a positive integer written on each of its nodes. Your task is to find the vertical sum of node values i.e. the sum of nodes that can be connected by a vertical line.

A binary tree is a tree in which each parent node has at most two children.

For example:
Consider the following Binary Tree:

sample-tree

So the final answer is
12 9 11 6
Problem approach

We need to maintain the level of every vertex and sum up the value of nodes in the respective level

Try solving now

2. Top View Of Binary Tree

Moderate
25m average time
70% success
0/80
Asked in companies
MicrosoftThought WorksSamsung R&D Institute

You are given a Binary Tree of 'n' nodes.


The Top view of the binary tree is the set of nodes visible when we see the tree from the top.


Find the top view of the given binary tree, from left to right.


Example :
Input: Let the binary tree be:

Example

Output: [10, 4, 2, 1, 3, 6]

Explanation: Consider the vertical lines in the figure. The top view contains the topmost node from each vertical line.
Problem approach

This was a follow-up to the previous question.
We can store the first occurrence of some vertex for a particular level in some hashmap.
At the end, the map will be storing the top view of the binary tree.

Try solving now
03
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date20 May 2022
Coding problem1

1. Alien Dictionary

Easy
10m average time
70% success
0/40
Asked in companies
Thought WorksNagarro SoftwareTCS

Ninja is learning a new but strange language known as Alien Language. Alien language possesses the same alphabets as of English language, but their order is different. The order of letters are given as ‘ORDER’ string. Ninja has ‘N’ words in the ‘WORDS’ array. Ninja’s task is to check whether the words of ‘WORDS’ are sorted lexicographically in this alien language or not.

Note: ‘ORDER’ consists of all 26 letters of English alphabet.

For Example
If ‘WORDS’ = ["word","world","row"], ‘ORDER’ = "worldabcefghijkmnpqstuvxyz",the answer will be ‘NO’ as first and second words are not lexicographically sorted as ‘l’ comes before ‘d’ in alien language.
Problem approach

First I created a Directed Acyclic Graph of characters using the given input
Run Topological Sort on this graph to find the required output

Try solving now
04
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date9 Jun 2022
Coding problem2

1. Cycle Detection in a Singly Linked List

Moderate
15m average time
80% success
0/80
Asked in companies
GrabThalesSterlite Technologies Limited

You are given a Singly Linked List of integers. Return true if it has a cycle, else return false.


A cycle occurs when a node's next points back to a previous node in the list.


Example:
In the given linked list, there is a cycle, hence we return true.

Sample Example 1

Problem approach

I used Floyd's Cycle Detection Algorithm to solve this problem

Try solving now

2. Core subject based questions

Tell any 2 components in OS where Tree Data Structure is used
Explain Inheritance
Explain Polymorphism
Explain ACID property in DBMS
Explain CRUD

05
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date14 Jun 2022
Coding problem1

1. Partition to K equal sum subsets

Moderate
40m average time
70% success
0/80
Asked in companies
Goldman SachsMicrosoftDunzo

You are given an array of 'N' integers, and a positive integer 'K'. You need to determine if it is possible to divide the array into 'K' non-empty subsets such that the sum of elements of each subset is equal.

Note:

1. The array can have duplicate elements.

2. Each of the array elements must belong to exactly one of the 'K' subsets.

3. The elements chosen for a subset may not be contiguous in the array.
Problem approach

The interviewer was more interested in how I reach to the approach.
I gave a backtracking solution where I checked by putting each element to one of the 3 partitions and checked if that gives a valid partition

Try solving now

Here's your problem of the day

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

Skill covered: Programming

What is recursion?

Choose another skill to practice
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