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

SDE - 2

Expedia Group
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5 rounds | 7 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 8 months
Topics: DSA(2 Pointers, Sliding Window, DP, Greedy, Trees, Graphs, Linked List, Divide and Conquer, Sorting and Searching Algos), OOPS, SOLID Principles, HLD(Case studies mostly), LLD(case studies mostly), Java(Multithreading, GC, Generics, Java8 features),*** Striver SDE Sheet full ***
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : plan what you want to learn, it helps with time management
Tip 2 : revise at the end of the day what you learnt and make flash cards
Tip 3 : be result oriented, try to break the task into smaller chunks and complete them and most of all don't give up

Application process
Where: Other
Eligibility: 2+ years experience in java
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : mention what was the effect of the task you did in your company with metrics(eg. decreased latency by 50%)
Tip 2 : only add things to your resume that will make you look even better, remove everything which is unnecessary (Hobbies, Languages you speak, "I was member of so and so cultural commitie")
Tip 3 : Add your leetcode, codeforces ... profile, add your awesome ranks in Google Kickstart etc

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Test
Duration90 minutes
Interview date1 Mar 2022
Coding problem1

3 DSA questions based on  pointers, sorting and binary search. I only remember 1.

1. Merge Sort

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

Given a sequence of numbers ‘ARR’. Your task is to return a sorted sequence of ‘ARR’ in non-descending order with help of the merge sort algorithm.

Example :

Merge Sort Algorithm -

Merge sort is a Divide and Conquer based Algorithm. It divides the input array into two-parts, until the size of the input array is not ‘1’. In the return part, it will merge two sorted arrays a return a whole merged sorted array.

subsequence

The above illustrates shows how merge sort works.
Note :
It is compulsory to use the ‘Merge Sort’ algorithm.
Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration60 Minutes
Interview date10 Mar 2022
Coding problem2

1 Linked List, 1 two pointers

1. Segregate Even And Odd Nodes In a Linked List

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

You are given the head node of a singly linked list 'head'. Your task is to modify the linked list in such a way that all the even valued nodes appear before the all odd valued node and order of nodes remain the same.


Example :-
The given singly linked list is  6 -> 5 -> 3 -> 4 -> 7 -> 1 -> 2 

subsequence

The modified linked list should have all even values in starting and odd values in the end.
Problem approach

1. Use 2 pointers and 2 sentinal nodes.
2. First pointer is placed at even index and second pointer at odd index. The sentinel node's next is assigned to the respective pointers
3. Then move them two step at a time
4. return the next values of both the sentinels

Try solving now

2. Trapping Rain Water

Moderate
15m average time
80% success
0/80
Asked in companies
HCL TechnologiesCiti BankAtlassian

You have been given a long type array/list 'arr’ of size 'n’.


It represents an elevation map wherein 'arr[i]’ denotes the elevation of the 'ith' bar.



Note :
The width of each bar is the same and is equal to 1.
Example:
Input: ‘n’ = 6, ‘arr’ = [3, 0, 0, 2, 0, 4].

Output: 10

Explanation: Refer to the image for better comprehension:

Alt Text

Note :
You don't need to print anything. It has already been taken care of. Just implement the given function.
Problem approach

1. 2 pointers (Better)
2. prefix array

Try solving now
03
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration40 Minutes
Interview date10 Mar 2022
Coding problem2

2 Binary Tree questions
happened 15 mins after the first interview
interviewer was very patient and helpful

1. Pair Sum in BST.

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

You are given a Binary Search Tree (BST) and a target value ‘K’. Your task is to return true if there exist two nodes in the given BST such that the sum of their values is equal to the given target ‘K’, else return false.


A binary search tree (BST) is a binary tree data structure which has the following properties.

• The left subtree of a node contains only nodes with data less than the node’s data.

• The right subtree of a node contains only nodes with data greater than the node’s data.

• Both the left and right subtrees must also be binary search trees.


Note:
1. All the elements of the Binary Search Tree are unique.

2. You can’t use the same node value/element of BST twice.


For example:
tree: 8 5 10 2 6 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 7 -1 -1
'K' = 13,

The nodes with values 8 and 5 as shown in the above figure gives sum equal to the given target 13. 

Therefore, the output will be “true” i.e it is possible to find a pair in the given BST having sum equal to ‘K’.
Try solving now

2. Time To Burn Tree

Hard
50m average time
50% success
0/120
Asked in companies
OLX GroupPhonePeMicrosoft

You have a binary tree of 'N' unique nodes and a Start node from where the tree will start to burn. Given that the Start node will always exist in the tree, your task is to print the time (in minutes) that it will take to burn the whole tree.


It is given that it takes 1 minute for the fire to travel from the burning node to its adjacent node and burn down the adjacent node.


For Example :
For the given binary tree: [1, 2, 3, -1, -1, 4, 5, -1, -1, -1, -1]
Start Node: 3

    1
   / \
  2   3
     / \
    4   5

Output: 2

Explanation :
In the zeroth minute, Node 3 will start to burn.

After one minute, Nodes (1, 4, 5) that are adjacent to 3 will burn completely.

After two minutes, the only remaining Node 2 will be burnt and there will be no nodes remaining in the binary tree. 

So, the whole tree will burn in 2 minutes.
Try solving now
04
Round
Hard
Video Call
Duration50 minutes
Interview date10 Mar 2022
Coding problem1

started after 1 hour
interviewer was friendly and very helpful
time for this round was less and I was expected to answer very quickly

1. System Design Question

create a LLD for Call Center.
Discussions on proper data structures to use, inheritance, locking, pub-sub vs polling

Problem approach

Tip 1 : start with a basic class skeleton and make it better using SOLID principles 
Tip 2 : know how to use Data Structures from library like ArrayList, HashMap, PriorityQueue in java
Tip 3 : you don't need to create the whole codebase. Clarify which features to focus on and create stubs for services that you might need
Tip 4 : Don't assume anything. Ask a lot of questions and make sure you in the right direction

05
Round
Easy
HR Round
Duration40 Minutes
Interview date10 Mar 2022
Coding problem1

Hiring Manager Round started after 2 hours
Basic HR questions
Questions on past work experience 
some discussion on HLD

1. Basic HR Questions

Are you a team player?

What will you do if the team can't manage the deadline?

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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