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

SDE - 1

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2 rounds | 4 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 4 months
Topics: Data Structures, Algorithms, OOPS, OS, DBMS
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Work on Competitive Programming skills. That is one thing most companies look out for during hiring. Solve at least 100 
questions from every topic.
Tip 2 : You should have at least 2 good projects on your resume. Only write the things that you are completely sure of.
Tip 3 : Work on CS fundamentals as well like -OOPS, OS, and DBMS. There will be MCQ questions from this in the coding round as well as in the 1:1 round

Application process
Where: Referral
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Need at least 2 good projects on the resume. Write a short 2-3 lines summary of the project and the tech stack 
used.
Tip 2 : Resume should be 1 page only. Try to keep the Resume short with useful information only.
Tip 3 : Your Resume should clearly mention the skillset you have. Companies sometimes filter out Resume based on 
skillset only

Interview rounds

01
Round
Easy
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date5 Feb 2021
Coding problem2

It was a pure DSA round. 2 coding questions were asked of medium difficulty. I was able to solve both the questions.

1. Minimum Number of Platform Needed

Easy
23m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
Thought WorksGoldman SachsIntuit

You are given the arrival and departure times of N trains at a railway station in a day. You need to find the minimum of platforms required for the railway station such that no train waits i.e No train should wait for the platform to be clear or free.

Problem approach

We can take a map and store all the times in it with 'A' and 'D' as value respectively for Arrival time and Departure time. Then sort this map based on keys and iterate the map, if value is 'A' add 1 to the ans otherwise subtract 1. Max value of ans will be the min no. of platforms needed

Try solving now

2. Bottom View Of Binary Tree

Moderate
10m average time
90% success
0/80
Asked in companies
OYOMicrosoftAmazon

You are given a 'Binary Tree'.


Return the bottom view of the binary tree.


Note :
1. A node will be in the bottom-view if it is the bottom-most node at its horizontal distance from the root. 

2. The horizontal distance of the root from itself is 0. The horizontal distance of the right child of the root node is 1 and the horizontal distance of the left child of the root node is -1. 

3. The horizontal distance of node 'n' from root = horizontal distance of its parent from root + 1, if node 'n' is the right child of its parent.

4. The horizontal distance of node 'n' from root = horizontal distance of its parent from the root - 1, if node 'n' is the left child of its parent.

5. If more than one node is at the same horizontal distance and is the bottom-most node for that horizontal distance, including the one which is more towards the right.


Example:
Input: Consider the given Binary Tree:

alt text

Output: 4 2 6 3 7

Explanation:
Below is the bottom view of the binary tree.

alt text

1 is the root node, so its horizontal distance = 0.
Since 2 lies to the left of 0, its horizontal distance = 0-1= -1
3 lies to the right of 0, its horizontal distance = 0+1 = 1
Similarly, horizontal distance of 4 = Horizontal distance of 2 - 1= -1-1=-2
Horizontal distance of 5 = Horizontal distance of 2 + 1=  -1+1 = 0
Horizontal distance of 6 = 1-1 =0
Horizontal distance of 7 = 1+1 = 2

The bottom-most node at a horizontal distance of -2 is 4.
The bottom-most node at a horizontal distance of -1 is 2.
The bottom-most node at a horizontal distance of 0 is 5 and 6. However, 6 is more towards the right, so 6 is included.
The bottom-most node at a horizontal distance of 1 is 3.
The bottom-most node at a horizontal distance of 2 is 7.

Hence, the bottom view would be 4 2 6 3 7


Problem approach

Its a simple standard tree question
I applied the standard approach

Try solving now
02
Round
Hard
Face to Face
Duration55 minutes
Interview date10 Feb 2021
Coding problem2

It was a coding round. Two problems from DSA basic level questions were asked in this round. I was able to solve only one, which was obviously the easier one. I was not able to solve second questions

1. Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree

Hard
15m average time
85% success
0/120
Asked in companies
eBayAppleUber

You have been given a binary tree of integers. You are supposed to serialize and deserialize (refer to notes) the given binary tree.


You can choose any algorithm to serialize/deserialize the given binary tree. You only have to ensure that the serialized string can be deserialized to the original binary tree.


Note :
Serialization is the process of translating a data structure or object state into a format that can be stored or transmitted (for example, across a computer network) and reconstructed later. The opposite operation, that is, extracting a data structure from stored information, is deserialization.
Problem approach

I was not able to solve this question.

Try solving now

2. 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
  • Traverse linked list using two pointers.
  • Move one pointer(slow_p) by one and another pointer(fast_p) by two.
  • If these pointers meet at the same node then there is a loop. If pointers do not meet then linked list doesn’t have a loop.
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?

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