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

Problem Setter Intern

Scaler
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3 rounds | 3 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
I started with my coding journey from my second year with competitive program. I started with solving easy problems on codeforces and codechef and gradually increased problem difficulty. I also started participating in contests from the very start. It took me about an year to reach candidate master on codeforces and 6-star on codechef. I also tried out web development and created few projects for my resume.
Application story
The recuiter of Scaler appoached me on Linkedin. After discussion about the role, she scheduled my first interview.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I think I got selected because of my skills in competitive programming. It exponentially increased my problem solving skill and I was able to answer interview questions in no time. Along with it I think being confident added as a plus point.
Preparation
Duration: 12 months
Topics: Recursion, Dynamic Programming, Graphs, Trees
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Practice problems from different topics.
Tip 2 : Mention team based projects in your resume to showcase team work.

Application process
Where: Email Approach
Eligibility: No Criteria
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Since this role is for problem setter, mention your coding profiles with link in resume.
Tip 2 : Write down achievements along with a short description of the event.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Easy
Video Call
Duration60 minutes
Interview date15 Dec 2021
Coding problem1

It was a 60 minutes coding interview round, where the interviewer asked me a single problem.

1. Maximum Subarray Sum

Moderate
25m average time
75% success
0/80
Asked in companies
Paytm (One97 Communications Limited)AmazonSnapdeal

Given an array of numbers, find the maximum sum of any contiguous subarray of the array.


For example, given the array [34, -50, 42, 14, -5, 86], the maximum sum would be 137, since we would take elements 42, 14, -5, and 86.


Given the array [-5, -1, -8, -9], the maximum sum would be -1.


Follow up: Do this in O(N) time.

Problem approach

I straight away jumped to segment tree.
In each node of the segment tree, we can maintain 3 states, i.e.,
1. Maximum prefix sum
2. Maximum suffix sum
3. Maximum subarray sum

Now, after declaring these states, we just need to transition between nodes and save these states optimally.

Try solving now
02
Round
Easy
Video Call
Duration45 minutes
Interview date16 Dec 2021
Coding problem1

The round was to test my video reviewing capabilities.

1. Queue Using Stack

Moderate
30m average time
60% success
0/80
Asked in companies
SamsungAdobeGE (General Electric)

Implement a queue data structure which follows FIFO(First In First Out) property, using only the instances of the stack data structure.


Note:
1. To implement means you need to complete some predefined functions, which are supported by a normal queue such that it can efficiently handle the given input queries which are defined below.


2. The implemented queue must support the following operations of a normal queue: 

a. enQueue(data) : This function should take one argument of type integer and place the integer to the back of the queue.

b. deQueue(): This function should remove an integer from the front of the queue and also return that integer. If the queue is empty, it should return -1.

c. peek(): This function returns the element present in the front of the queue. If the queue is empty, it should return -1.

d. isEmpty(): This function should return true if the queue is empty and false otherwise.


3. You will be given q queries of 4 types:

a. 1 val - For this type of query, you need to insert the integer val to the back of the queue.

b. 2 - For this type of query, you need to remove the element from the front of the queue, and also return it.

c. 3 - For this type of query, you need to return the element present at the front of the queue(No need to remove it from the queue).

d. 4 - For this type of query, you need to return true if the queue is empty and false otherwise.


4. For every query of type:

a. 1, you do not need to return anything.

b. 2, return the integer being deQueued from the queue.

c. 3, return the integer present in the front of the queue.

d. 4, return “true” if the queue is empty, “false” otherwise.
Example
Operations: 
1 5
1 10
2
3
4

Enqueue operation 1 5: We insert 5 at the back of the queue.
Queue: [5]

Enqueue operation 1 10: We insert 10 at the back of the queue.
Queue: [5, 10]

Dequeue operation 2: We remove the element from the front of the queue, which is 5, and print it.
Output: 5
Queue: [10]

Peek operation 3: We return the element present at the front of the queue, which is 10, without removing it.
Output: 10
Queue: [10]

IsEmpty operation 4: We check if the queue is empty.
Output: False
Queue: [10]
Problem approach

I thouroughly reviewed the video and marked important intuitions which the video creator have missed.

Try solving now
03
Round
Easy
HR Round
Duration45 minutes
Interview date18 Dec 2021
Coding problem1

It was an interview with the manager of the team for team fitting.

1. Basic HR Questions

Introduce yourself.

What are your interest?

What are your strengths and weakness?

When did you started practising Data Structures?

 

Problem approach

I gave an overview of a variety of my interest and my team work.

Here's your problem of the day

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

Skill covered: Programming

Which keyword is used for inheritance?

Choose another skill to practice
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