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SDE-3

Cisco
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6 rounds | 7 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 6 Months
Topics: OOPS, Data Structure, Algorithms, High level design, Microservices
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Practice DSA questions
Tip 2 : Prepare one project on microservices
Tip 3 : Practice Java programs

Application process
Where: Other
Eligibility: Should be excellent in algorithms
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : To the point detail, not very long description of projects
Tip 2 : No more then 2 pages

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration60 minutes
Interview date28 Aug 2021
Coding problem2

Online round was having 2 DSA problems, that need to be solved in 1 hour only.

1. Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters

Moderate
20m average time
80% success
0/80
Asked in companies
AdobeWalmartSAP Labs

Given a string 'S' of length 'L', return the length of the longest substring without repeating characters.

Example:

Suppose given input is "abacb", then the length of the longest substring without repeating characters will be 3 ("acb").
Try solving now

2. All Unique Permutations

Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
AppleFacebookAmerican Express

You are given an array Arr consisting of N integers. Your task is to find all the unique permutations of the given array. For e.g if the array is {1, 1, 2}, the unique permutations of this array are {1, 1, 2}, {1, 2, 1}, {2, 1, 1}. Note that the total number of permutations of {1,1,2} is equal to 6 but out of those {1,1,2} and {1,2,1} occur twice.

Note:
1. There might be duplicates present in the array.
2. The order of the permutations in the output does not matter.
3. Do not use any kind of in-built library functions to find the answer.
Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 Minutes
Interview date15 Sep 2021
Coding problem1

Once I cleared the first online test exam, then I was eligible for second round. In this round they were focused on DSA problems and High level design of one project. The duration of this round in 60 mins.

1. Zig-Zag Conversion

Moderate
0/80
Asked in companies
AmazonAdobePayPal

You are given a string ‘S’ and an integer ‘ROW’, convert the row into a zig-zag pattern with rows equal to ‘ROW’ and output it row-wise. You may refer to the example below to better understand what the zig-zag pattern means.

Example :
If ‘S’ = “beaninjacoder” and ‘ROW’ = 4

Then the zig-zag pattern is:
b         j        r
e     n   a     e
a   i     c   d
n         o

Therefore, we will print “bjrenaeaicdno”.
Try solving now
03
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration60 Minutes
Interview date15 Sep 2021
Coding problem1

This was also the same as second round. for one hour and some DSA and High level design questions.

1. Add Two Numbers As Linked Lists

Moderate
20m average time
80% success
0/80
Asked in companies
MicrosoftOracleSAP Labs

You are given two non-negative numbers 'num1' and 'num2' represented in the form of linked lists.


The digits in the linked lists are stored in reverse order, i.e. starting from least significant digit (LSD) to the most significant digit (MSD), and each of their nodes contains a single digit.


Calculate the sum of the two numbers and return the head of the sum list.


Example :
Input:
'num1' : 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> NULL
'num2' : 4 -> 5 -> 6 -> NULL

Output: 5 -> 7 -> 9 -> NULL

Explanation: 'num1' represents the number 321 and 'num2' represents 654. Their sum is 975.


Problem approach

Just like how you would sum two numbers on a piece of paper, we begin by summing the least-significant digits, which is the head of l1l1 and l2l2. Since each digit is in the range of 0 \ldots 90…9, summing two digits may "overflow". For example 5 + 7 = 125+7=12. In this case, we set the current digit to 22 and bring over the carry = 1carry=1 to the next iteration. carrycarry must be either 00 or 11 because the largest possible sum of two digits (including the carry) is 9 + 9 + 1 = 199+9+1=19.

The pseudocode is as following:

Initialize current node to dummy head of the returning list.
Initialize carry to 00.
Loop through lists l1l1 and l2l2 until you reach both ends and crarry is 00.
Set xx to node l1l1's value. If l1l1 has reached the end of l1l1, set to 00.
Set yy to node l2l2's value. If l2l2 has reached the end of l2l2, set to 00.
Set sum = x + y + carrysum=x+y+carry.
Update carry = sum / 10carry=sum/10.
Create a new node with the digit value of (sum \bmod 10)(summod10) and set it to current node's next, then advance current node to next.
Advance both l1l1 and l2l2.
Return dummy head's next node.
Note that we use a dummy head to simplify the code. Without a dummy head, you would have to write extra conditional statements to initialize the head's value.

Try solving now
04
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration60 Minutes
Interview date15 Sep 2021
Coding problem1

This was also same as third round, for one hour. Some DSA problems asked here.

1. Roman Numeral To Integer

Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
UberFacebookCisco

You are given a string 's' that represents a Roman number. Convert the Roman number to an integer and return it.


Roman numerals are represented by seven different symbols: I, V, X, L, C, D, and M.


Table of values:
Symbol       Value
I             1
V             5
X             10
L             50
C             100
D             500
M             1000
For example:
3 is written as III in Roman numeral, just three ones added together. 13 is written as XIII, which is simply X + III. The number 25 is written as XXV, which is XX + V 
Problem approach

Steps:

Create a array of all integers for which we have a distinct roman literal, and a matching array with their respetive roman literal
Run a loop for iterate through all integer value from previously created integer array
Inside this for loop, give a while loop to subtract the input number from array number until it becomes lesser than the array number, append the respective roman literal to a string buffer

Try solving now
05
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration50 minutes
Interview date20 Sep 2021
Coding problem1

This was a managerial round. It went for and hour and two people were there in the panel. They were asking the process and some system design problems.

1. System Design Question

We need to design one application were we have lot of data. And we need to handle the user concurrency. What is the way we can do that?

Problem approach

Tip 1 : First understand the problem first.
Tip 2 : Relate this problem to real life problem.
Tip 3 : Answer it wisely.

06
Round
Easy
HR Round
Duration15 Minutes
Interview date21 Sep 2021
Coding problem1

This was HR round, where they only asked about your current and expected salary.

1. Basic HR Questions

What is your current and expected CTC.

What are your hobbies and talents?

Problem approach

Tip 1 : You can tell the current CTC.
Tip 2 : You can ask CTC according to company standard.
Tip 3 : You can ask for company's share also.

Here's your problem of the day

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

Skill covered: Programming

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