Screening Round
Questions:
For the first question, I explained the solution correctly with time complexity and coded it as fast as possible to get to the second question. The interviewer hinted I had a bug at some line, and I managed to see it and fix it.
For the second problem, the interviewer wanted the repetition count of the target instead. I explained the brute force solution and then mentioned that I was thinking it could be better by using binary search. I started thinking of it and doing examples, but he stopped me and gave me a hint on finding boundaries of the target. I quickly explained the solution after he hinted and he agreed. I had 10 minutes to code it and managed to code it while explaining what I was doing. When I finished, I began to verify it, and he told me that was okay, no need.
Candidate's Approach
For the first question, I provided a correct explanation and implementation. I was able to identify and fix a bug with the interviewer's hint. For the second question, I initially proposed a brute force solution but pivoted to a binary search approach after receiving hints about finding boundaries.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.