Round 1
Questions: I was asked the following question during the interview: Crossword Search Problem
Candidate's Approach
I solved the question with O(R x C) time complexity. I spent the initial 20 minutes asking questions related to the test cases to ensure I was confident when writing the code. The interviewer ran his test cases and was happy with the code structure.
Interviewer's Feedback
I was rejected due to asking many questions about input/output.
Preparation
It took me almost 3 weeks for the preparation. I solved the blind 75 and almost 130 out of 150 Neetcode and 200+ LC questions. I believe Neetcode 150 is more than enough as it covers everything. The question, as you can see, is easy to medium level.
Thoughts
Although I was very confident that I would be interviewed onsite as I solved the problem and coded it up in 5-7 minutes, I was heartbroken after the recruiter's feedback. I am not sure what else they are looking for; first, they want you to ask questions, then they reject you for that. Just FYI, I didn't ask questions like I wanted some hints. It was mostly, "If this is the input string, will it result like this?" and "Can you please tell me what is the expected output of this interface?" etc.