PolicyBazaar.com interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview
SDE - 1
PolicyBazaar.com
2 rounds | 4 Coding
problems
Rejected
Interview preparation journey
Preparation
Duration: 4 months
Topics: Data Structures, Pointers, OOPS, System Design, Algorithms, Dynamic Programming
Tip 1 : Practise 5 problems daily from websites like hackerrank, codechef, codeforces
Tip 2 : Participate in codechef, codeforces contest.
Tip 3 : Attend mock interviews and should have good communication skills.
Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: Above 7 CGPA
Tip 1 : Maintain atleast 2 different projects, write powerful summary statement.
Tip 2 : Maintain skills relevant to job description, include relevant experience.
Interview rounds
01
Round
Easy
Video Call
Duration45 mins
Interview date19 Oct 2022
Coding problem2
1. Puzzle
You have 15 Rs with you. You go to a shop and shopkeeper tells you price as 1 Rs per chocolate. He also tells you that you can get a chocolate in return of 3 wrappers. How many maximum chocolates you can eat?
Problem approach
Buy and eat 15 chocolates
Return 15 wrappers and get 5 more chocolates.
Return 3 wrappers, get 1 chocolate and eat it (keep 2 wrappers)
Now we have 3 wrappers. Return 3 and get 1 more chocolate.
So total chocolates = 15 + 5 + 1 + 1
2. Merge Sort Linked List
Moderate
10m average time
90% success
0/80
Asked in companies
You are given a Singly Linked List of integers. Sort the Linked List using merge sort.
Merge Sort is a Divide and Conquer algorithm. It divides the input into two halves, calls itself for the two halves, and then merges the two sorted halves. The merge() function is used for merging two halves. The merge(arr, L, M, R) is a key process that assumes that arr[L..M] and arr[M + 1...R] are sorted and merges the two sorted subarrays into one.
Problem approach
You are given a Singly Linked List of integers. Sort the Linked List using merge sort.
Merge Sort is a Divide and Conquer algorithm. It divides the input into two halves, calls itself for the two halves, and then merges the two sorted halves. The merge() function is used for merging two halves. The merge(arr, L, M, R) is a key process that assumes that arr[L..M] and arr[M + 1...R] are sorted and merges the two sorted subarrays into one.
02
Round
Easy
Video Call
Duration45 mins
Interview date19 Oct 2022
Coding problem2
1. Minimum insertions to make a string palindrome
Moderate
30m average time
70% success
0/80
Asked in companies
A palindrome string is one that reads the same backward as well as forward.
You are given a string 'str'.
Find the minimum number of characters needed to insert in 'str' to make it a palindromic string.
Example :
Input: 'str' = "abca"
Output: 1
Explanation:
If we insert the character ‘b’ after ‘c’, we get the string "abcba", which is a palindromic string. Please note that there are also other ways possible.
Problem approach
A palindrome string is one that reads the same backward as well as forward. Given a string 'STR', you need to tell the minimum number of characters needed to insert into it to make it a palindromic string.
For example:
String 'STR' = “abcaa” can be converted into a palindrome by inserting 2 characters. So the final string becomes “aabcbaa”.
2. Puzzle
There are 20 people standing in a line, one behind the other. Each is made to wear a hat, which can either be white or black. There can be any number of white or black hats between 0 and 20. Each person can see the hat of all the persons ahead of him in the line, but not those of the people standing behind. Each person is required to guess (loudly) the color of his/her own hat. The objective is for the group to get as many correct guesses as possible. The group is allowed to discuss and form a strategy before the exercise. What is the best strategy? What is the maximum number of correct guesses in this strategy?
Problem approach
The person who stands last in the queue, behind everyone else, will count the number of white hats on the heads of the 19 people present ahead of him. If this number is even, he (loudly) guesses the hat on his head as ‘Black’. if the number is odd, he guesses ‘White’. The probability of the hat on his head being what he guessed is 50%. There is no way this person can guess the hat on his head correctly. However, his guess functions as a message to others in front of him.
Suppose the 20th person guesses ‘Black’. Now, the person who is 19th in the queue knows that the number of white hats on the first 19 people (the 18 people in front of him and himself) is even. He then checks whether the number of white hats in front of him is even or odd. If the number is even, that means the hat on his head is black. If the number is odd, that means the hat on his head is white and calls that out (loudly). Therefore, the 19th person in the queue always guesses correctly, based on the message the 20th person passed on.
A similar strategy is followed by each person in turn. Therefore, everyone except the last (20th) person guesses correctly for sure. The answer to this puzzle, therefore, is 19.
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?
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