Technical Screen
Questions:
- Basic Calculator II - Link - Try to solve without using a stack to achieve O(1) space complexity.
- Minimum Remove to Make Valid Parentheses - Link - Try to solve without using a stack.
Candidate's Approach
No approach provided.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Onsite
Questions:
- Palindrome Permutation - Link
- Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) - Link
- Valid Palindrome II - Link
- Follow-up: Could it work if we can remove up to (n) characters instead of just one?
- Vertical Order Traversal of a Binary Tree - Link
- Interviewer suggested two possible improvements, which I think may not actually work:
- Using BFS so I don't need to track row positions;
- Rather than sorting, keep track of the min and max column numbers and iterate between them. I tried these briefly after the interview, but they didn’t seem effective.
- Interviewer suggested two possible improvements, which I think may not actually work:
Candidate's Approach
No approach provided.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Architecture
Question:
- Create a feed aggregator that collects all social media into one combined feed.
Candidate's Approach
I walked through a solid design for the system architecture question, discussed all tradeoffs, and incorporated the interviewer’s suggestions for improvement.
Interviewer's Feedback
The behavioral interview was quick, but the interviewer seemed satisfied.
Outcome: Got rejected after a week and had to email the recruiter to get a response. I was surprised because I thought the interview went well; I solved all the coding questions with optimal solutions.