SDE - 1

• I use recursion to solve this problem, and assigned color to each node and check at last whether it is giving safe configuration or not that is all nodes are of red and blue color and adjacent nodes have not the same color.

• I take both numbers in strings and use school mathematics concept of sum and carry to solve this problem, also my friend solved this question in python without using string concept.

• I simply use string traversal and hashing to solve this problem.

• Create two arrays called left and right. In the left store the product of all the numbers before the number at the current index. In the right store the product of all numbers after the number at the current index. And then just multiply left and right for each index. The interviewer was satisfied with this approach and asked me about the complexity of code and I tell him properly.

• There can be odd palindromic substrings and even palindromic substrings. So for odd palindromic substrings, consider each letter in the string as the center and then expand the substring in left and right and check. For even, take two adjacent characters and expand the string left and right and check if there's a possibility of forming a palindrome. This was the most efficient solution to this problem, the interviewer asked me to dry run the code on a particular test case given by him and I did it properly, and he was impressed by the solution.

• Firstly I gave him a brute force approach, then he asked me to give an optimal solution so I gave him an enhanced merge-sort solution.

I use tree traversal to solve this question with recursion. Do a traversal of the given tree. In the traversal, replace the value of the current node, with the sum of the values of left and right node (if they exist). Recursively follow for left and right node. And in the end, return the preorder of tree. He was satisfied with the approach.              

• I introduced myself, my name, branch, the reason why I was interested in computer science and Microsoft.

• The reason why I believed I was a good fit for the company was that I understood that Microsoft has been around for a very long time and despite that, it is still one of the top companies. For a company to stand that tall for that long, there must be something that they're doing right. I understand this factor is what makes them different from the rest and that's why I'd be a great fit for this company. I didn't talk about myself. Instead, I made them realize that I fully understood what this company demands from me. So HR was satisfied by my all answers.