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Interview Questions
There are three types of interviews: informationals, phone screens, and onsites. The
informational is the first meeting with a company and it is usually a phone chat with a recruiter. A
screening is a one hour test, by phone or in person, to assess your technical skills. I also had
many informationals with hiring managers, and 80+% of the time I was asked technical
questions. Unless their title explicitly says recruiter then you need to expect technical questions.
The onsite is the final stage. Its 3 to 6 interview sessions with individual or pairs of interviewers.
And if things will go well, some companies will have you meet with the hiring manager at the
end.
It is best to solve these questions on a white board. Simply knowing them or memorizing will
only help marginally. Read the section on preparing for an interview for more details.
Lastly, the company names are removed because the smaller shops do not have the resources
to come up with new questions.
A. Informational Questions
Here are the questions I have been asked by recruiters. These are aimed at determining your
skill set, interests, and personality. Similar questions were asked in the later stages too.
1. Why do you want to work for us?
If you cant answer this question then you shouldnt have applied. Companies want
to hear: I am looking for a challenge., I love your companys products and want to
work on something Im passionate about., and I learned your company culture
values x, y, and z. These things are important to me.
One time I told a .NET shop that I wanted to get away from Microsoft technology and
work with open source software. Unsurprisingly, I did not get a call back. Dont be
stupid. Dont lie. Research the company and tell the truth.
2. Why do you want to leave your current company?
This is similar to question 1. Be positive. Don't say "I hate my boss" or "They never
gave me a raise." I told a hiring manager that I didn't like the people who did xyz at
my company. His response was "I was a xyz there." Can you guess if I got an offer
afterwards?
3. Have you used our product? What do you know about our product?
Also similar to question 1. Companies like candidates who do their research ahead
of time. And it is especially important for companies like Apple and Tableau. In fact,
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being familiar with the product is one of Tableau's founding values.
4. How can you improve our product?
I hear this question often from consumer facing websites/apps. Answering correctly
demonstrates you have done your homework and you can advocate for the end
user.
5. Generic behavioral questions like tell us a difficult problem you overcame.
These types of questions are covered in both of the books as well as sites on the
web.
B. Phone Screen Questions
These are more technical, but you can still get asked questions from informationals. If you have
the option to do it in person then go to their office. Otherwise, get familiar with the webtool
ahead of time. Majority of companies used http://code.stypi.com/.
1. What is your biggest achievement? Biggest programming challenge?
They want to hear what you can do. If you are a senior engineer, this is your chance
to sell yourself. Tell them about an ass kicking project you did that saved the
company millions of dollars. Go deep and go big. And this will often be asked during
the onsite too.
2. Implement an arraylist. Need constant time for adding and removing
elements.
Implementing an arrayList/vector is generic but I couldnt figure out a good way to fill
up the gaps in the array when elements were removed. If you figure out a good
solution then please share it with us.
3. Given a maze represented by a grid and a robot. Write code that helps the
robot travel from a starting point to the end. The robot has the following API:
Interface robot
{
CanGo() //checks to see if it can travel in the direction it is facing.
TurnRight() // changes direction
IsAtFinish() //returns true if standing at the end of the maze.
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Go() //moves 1 step in the direction it is facing.
}
r - starting point.
X - blocked area.
f - finish.
X X X X X X X X
X X X
r X X X
X X X X X
X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X f X X
X X X X X X X X
Hint: the accesible paths have only a width of 1.
Can be solved as generic graph traversal problem. But if you take advanage of the
hint then you don't need to remember where you have traveled.
4. Output the elements of a binary search tree in order. Follow up: Given the
root node and another node of the BST, find the next node in order.
Part 1 is basic tree traversal. And Part 2 is a generic BST problem that you should
master.
5. Find the duplicate elements in a string.
This is doable in linear time with a single pass.
6. Describe abstraction, encapsulation, polymorphism.
I also got asked: is-a and has-a? Abstract class vs interface? Class vs isntance?
DFS vs BFS? BST vs array? These are basic 101 concepts. And are probably
asked to see how well you can communicate a simple idea. Make sure you have a
clear and concise answer for each.
7. Design an LRU cache.
back
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Standard questions that gets asked a lot. Hint: it requires two data structures.
8. Given an array of positive and negative integers. Find the starting index and
length of sub-array with the largest sum.
Can be done in linear time with constant memory.
9. The nodes in a standard binary tree contain a next pointer that points to
NULL. Change the next pointer to point to the nearest node to the right and
on the same level.
Most people solve this using queues, which is O(N) space. You can really impress
your interviewer if you do it with O(1) space. I giggled like a school girl when two
different companies asked this in the same day.
10. Given an n x m matrix of ints. Each int/square has a value of 1 or 0. Two
squares are connected if both have a value of 1 and they are next to each
other (diagonals do not count). The area is the sum of all connected
squares. A single square has an area of 1. Calculate the median of all the
areas. n and m are 1024 at most.
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
The example has three areas with sizes 1, 3, and 4. The median is 3.
Think about which data structure to use for the median for best performance. There
are also multiple ways to parse the areas.
11. Databases for Twitter are eventually consistent. But when a user creates a
login it needs to be unique and guaranteed. Design a system to support
this.
Interviewer wanted me to describe paxos.
12. Given an array of arrays of sorted ints. Returned the kth largest.
Variations of this were asked three times. Run time should be O(k * log n), where n
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is the number of arrays. If n is 2 then it can solved in O(log k).
13. Class vs instance? Follow up: what is a virtual function and how are they
implemented?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_method_table
14. Find all of the phone numbers in 50k files?
Use regular expression. Know how to do this with command line commands. Or in a
Perl script.
15. Reverse a null terminated string.
An easy question does not mean the interview is a cupcake. I assume easy
questions are graded harder--how fast and how well did you finish? Test cases, etc.
16. Implement binary search to find values from an array of sorted floats.
Same as above. Beaware of cupcakes.
17. Convert a string to a long.
Standard atoi.
18. Create the add and delete functions for a tri-nary search tree. It is like a
binary search tree except there is a middle pointer and duplicates are
allowed. This middle pointer points to nodes with identical values.
Not really different from BST.
C. Onsite Questions
Mostly a mixture of coding and design questions. But questions from previous sections are also
asked during onsite interviews.
1. Given a N x M sized Boggle board. Find all of the valid words.
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This got asked twice.
2. Make the game asteriods. Code it.
Break the problem into work items and implement it.
3. Given an n-ary tree and m number of nodes, how do you find the first
common parent? If the nodes had parent pointer, how would you do it?
You can extrapolate from the binary tree case.
4. topological sort.
Learn it. It gets asked a lot. Make sure you can recognize it and do both
implementations.
5. You have 10MB of data mapping IP range to country code. And 100GB of IP
mapping to URL. Find the 10 countries with the most web traffic.
Find the 10 most visited URLs for each country.
First one is easy. Second requires a bit more thinking.
6. Given two nodes of a BST, return the least common ancestor. A node
cannot be its parent. (The other variation allows a node to be its own
parent.)
Should be pretty simple.
7. Implement a prefix calculator. Takes in the string "+ 3 * 3 4" and spits out 15.
Apparently the double stack implementation is impossible. :/
8. Add two strings. For example ""423" + "99" = "522"
This is a fun and common problem. Try to do it as efficiently as possible. Also, does
it matter that it's base 10?
9. Subtract two strings.
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Slightly trickier than adding. They are still both O(n) but subtraction requires more
cycles.
10. Multiply two strings.
This one is pretty hard and it took some thinking.
11. Divide two strings.
Just kidding! I don't think this is possible in an 1 hour long interview.
12. Given two integer arrays and a number k. Return all pairs of numbers that
sum to k. Each number of the pair has to be from a different array.
What is the best space and time efficient way to do this? You should arrive at an
linear algorithm.
13. Design a hash that can also return a random element in O(1).
Kind of like an LRU cache where you need two data structures.
14. Design a mobile app for to control Hulu on the Xbox.
API, UI, network protocol.
15. Given an n x m grid. What is the total number of rectangles? The sample
below is 2 x 3 and contains 18 different rectangles. If we remove a w x h
portion of the grid, what is the total number of rectangles?
First part is really easy. Second part is too if you think about it first, but coding might
take a little longer.
16. Design Twitter. Make sure you include a search function.
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Big data, distributed system, system design questions are fun!
17. Using this mapping:
"0" -> "a"
"1" -> "b"
...
"24" -> "y"
"25" -> "z"
How many possible mappings are there for any numerical string? For
example, "11" can be mapped two different ways: "bb" and "j".
Spoilers: it's like fibonacci...
18. Given a list of words in an alien language. If you know the list is sorted in
alphabetical order then how do you determine the alphabetical order of the
letters? For example, from the following list of English words we can
determine the letter "t" must come after "b". And "c" is before "z".
list:
cab
cat
zebra
Beep! Beep! Topological sort problem detected.
19. Given a function f and a number d. I want you to call f after waiting d
miliseconds.
People tell me this is a classic question asked by hiring managers for senior
positions. It's basically design a task scheduler.
20. Return the first n prime numbers.
How do you optimize this? Is it thread safe?
21. Given two strings a and b. Return true if any substring of a is an anagram of
b.
This can be done in linear time with linear space.
22. Given an array of sorted non-overlapping intervals. Insert a random interval i
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into the array and maintain the array's property. For example, inserting (3, 6)
into {(0,1), (2,4), (5,10)} results in {(0,1), (2,10)}
Understand the array's implementation when designing the optimal solution.
23. Invert a binary tree. Each child now points to its parent. Return a list of the
original leaf nodes.
This is like reversing a linked list, except with a few more if statements.
24. Invert a graph. If node A pointed to node B then B now points to A instead.
There are many ways to represent a graph. Which one has the best run time and
easiest implementation for this problem? Also, what happens if the graph is
cyclical?
25. Transport a 4GB file between two systems; each with 1GB of RAM. The final
output needs to be compeletely randomized.
My lack of filesystem knowledge doomed me.
26. Design a runner app that calculates miles per minute.
You have a GPS API and one for the UI.
27. Given a size n array that contains all intergers from 0 to n-1. The elements
are in random order, how do you sort it?
I feel really dumb not getting this question.
28. Colors on the web are defined by a three bytes: 0x00 00 00 to 0xFF FF FF.
Implement a lossy compression that maps from three bytes to three half
bytes. For example, 0xFF 01 FE is mapped to 0xF 0 F.
Test all values to make sure it works.
29. Water fill bar graph column problem.
There has to be a better description of this on the web.
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30. Design a load balancer class.
Code it out. Make sure it can add and remove machines.
31. Convert an array of strings into one long string. And then convert it back.
What does the long string look like?
32. Build a class for handling math expressions.
Go fish. This question was very vague. In hindsight I should have asked for more
clarifications before coding.
33. Given an array of unsigned ints and a number s. Return true if a pair in the
array sums to s.
Worst case is O(n^2). How do you better?
34. Count the number of nodes in a binary tree that have only one child.
Recursive tree traversal. Shouldn't be too hard.
35. "Read and analyze this code. What do you think?"
The interviewer wants you to find bugs in code. It's usually bad abstraction,
concurrency issues, memory leaks, or no input sanitation. The usual stuff you'd
discover in a code review.
36. Design the Maruder's Map from Harry Potter for a tablet.
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Features for readibility? Data structures for storing information?
37. Design the system used by a local rental car agency. It needs to handle:
reservations, check out, check in.
How does it handle error conditions? Such as reserved car is not returned by
previous owner? What if user wants a list of all cars available between a certain
date? How do you scale to a national chain like Hertz?
38. What is the least number of comparisons needed to find the smallest and
largest numbers in an array of ints?
Worst case is 2n. How do you do better?
39. What is the least number of comparisons needed to find the second
smallest and second largest numbers in an array of ints?
Try to find the second largest first by itself.
40. An N sized array contains integerts starting from 1. Find the first missing
integer. For example, in [4, 1, 3, 2, 6] the first missing integer is 5.
You can sort the array and find the missing number in O(n log n). How do you do
better?
41. Describe the excel table problem.
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Nag me about this. I need to update it.
42. The transitive property means if a > b and b > c then a > c. Assume a set of
numbers break this property. If a > b and b > c then a > c, a == c, or a < c.
Given an array of such numbers, find the maximum value.
Is there even a guaranteed max?
43. What is override vs overwritten? Singleton vs Factory? cdecl/c++ calling
conventions?
More term definitions. Memorize these.
44. A musuem's floor space is represented by a N x M matrix. A square can be a
wall, a guard, or empty space. Given a list of guards, calculate the mahattan
distance of all empty space to the nearest guard. The path cannot go
through walls. This is what the output should look like:
G 1 2 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 2 1 2 3 4 5
2 2 1 G 1 2 3 4
3 3 2 1 2 3 4 5
W W W W W 4 W W
G 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Bonus: Given an N x M with one guard. Place a second guard to optmize the
coverage.
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The bonus part probably has a dynamic programming solution. And you also need
to define what is optimal.
45. Given two strings, find the largest common substring.
I have no idea what the optimal solution is but I think this is a well known problem
and desribed on wikipedia.
46. Implement a filesystem that allows multiple readers and one writer. No
readers can read when the writer is writing. And the writer cannot start
writing if a read is in progress.
Concurrency fun!
47. Design a search engine.
Something about servers, databases, etc.
48. Given a non-cyclical linked list. Each node also contains a random pointer,
which points to null or another node that is already in the list. Copy this list.
There is a layman solution that uses hash tables. And a trick solution that doesn't
need the hash, and I'm not sure how people can actually come up with it instead of
the hash solution.
49. Design a URL crawler using the following APIs:
getURL() - returns a list of all pages linked from the current page.
visit() - process the current page.
Given a starting page, how do you process all pages?
It's a graph traversal problem. But think about DFS vs BFS. If the average page has
10 links and goes 10 layers deep then how much memory does each take up?
50. Given an array A. Return array B where B[i] = the product of all elements in A
except for A[i]. You cannot use division.
Stupid puzzle problem.
51. Implement a filesystem that allows multiple readers and one writer. No
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readers can read when the writer is writing. And the writer cannot start
writing if a read is in progress.
Concurrency fun!
52. What is deadlock? Race condition? What happens when you add const to
the end of a method declaration?
More definitions. Answer these sussinctly.
53. Given a black and white image. How do you produce the mirror image?
Unlike reversing a string, we know have to reverse the bits in the bytes. This is
actually a complicated problem.
54. Merge an array strings into one string. Return this string to the clients. When
given back the merged string, separate it into the array of strings again.
This is different from the other problem because the clients can use the
intermediatery string. It's a more open ended question and leads to a discussion
about trade offs.
55. Given two linked lists. Find out if they converge. Return the node they first
converge on.
Edge cases: what if a list is cyclic?
56. Given a M by N matrix of intergers. If an entry is 0 then set the entire row and
column to zero.
How do you make this run faster?
57. Shift an array by k places.
There is a trick to this.
58. When playing a game on the Xbox, I want to use the corresponding app on
my phone. Design a robust system to handle this. The phone needs to know
the XBox ID/gamertag.
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More distributed system design fun!
59. Given two parameters: n and c. Print out all integers from 1 to n in c
columns. For example, the output for n = 13 and c = 4 looks like this.
1 5 9 13
2 6 10
3 7 11
4 8 12
This is easy. Part 2 is below.
60. In the previous problem, notice there are empty spaces in the last column.
Change the algorithm to move the empty spaces in the last row. Like this:
1 5 8 11
2 6 9 12
3 7 10 13
4
For some reason, I just could not figure out the second part of this problem. Felt so
dumb. Then again, I was exhausted. It was six hours of straight interviews without
any breaks--my lunch buddy decided to turn my lunch into an interview. Note to
companies: please don't do this. Us poor candidates really need our break.
61. GetXY(), DrawX(), DrawY().
Remind me to update and describe this problem using drawings.
62. Given a list of lists of strings such as:
{("a1", "a2"),
("b1")
("c1", "c2", "c3")}
Print them in this order: "a1", "b1", "c1", "a2", "c2", "c3"
Again choice of data structure makes or breaks this problem.
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63. What would you do if you had a billion dollars?
Someone asked this immediately after a challenging system design question. I was
totally caught off guard and just mumbled. Though I am very proud of myself for not
blurting out "Hookers and blow."
64. Do you really want to work for us? Are we your first choice? Who else are
you looking at? Are we in the running?
This often get asked at the end of an interview. Or it's the first question asked when
the recruiter calls after an interview. Companies do this to gage your interest and
excitement level. They don't want to give an offer to someone who doesn't want to
work for them.
I told my Hulu referral that I rather go to Google (recruiter told him to ask me). Then I
told my Google interviewers that I want to be at 343 Industries or Redfin. Guess how
many offers I got from Hulu and Google.
65. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Not at this stupid company!
-_- Did you read the previous question? In general, try to say things they want to hear
until you have an offer.