This tag is for questions that came up in an interview.
117
votes
4answers
10k views
Calculate SHA1 hash from binary and verify with a provided hash
I applied for a job and they asked me to write code with the following requirements:
Get a "toolbar offer" description from
http..update.utorrent.com/installoffer.php?offer=conduit. Parse the
...
88
votes
16answers
8k views
Searching an element in a sorted array
I was applying for a position, and they asked me to complete a coding problem for them. I did so and submitted it, but I later found out I was rejected from the position. Anyways, I have an eclectic ...
61
votes
16answers
7k views
Outputting the names of cars, without repetitions, with the number of occurrences in order of decreasing repetitions
A short while ago, I have submitted a coding exercise to a
potential employer. The response came back the next
morning and you can guess what it was from the subject
of this post.
I am not ...
41
votes
10answers
4k views
Sales tax calculator, rejected for being not OOP
I applied for an Application Developer position. They require all their applicants to complete 1 of 3 programming assignments. I picked one for sales tax calculation. It was quite simple.
...
35
votes
12answers
4k views
Efficiently squaring each element in a sorted array, keeping it sorted
The other day I was asked the following question during an interview:
Given a sorted array, how would you square each element of this array, while keeping it sorted?
I froze up and wrote a ...
35
votes
11answers
6k views
Searching in an array in less than O(n) time
I have an array where each element is either one less or one greater than the preceding element \$\{x_i = x_{i-1} \pm 1\}\$. I wish to find an element in it in less than \$O(n)\$ time. I've ...
34
votes
3answers
4k views
Sorting millions of integers
Last Friday I was hit with a sorting interview question that I never really had to deal with.
Develop a your own sorting algorithm.
It cannot use any other Classes for help.
It needs ...
31
votes
9answers
3k views
Which FizzBuzz is better, and why?
I was in an interview and the guy asked me to do the typical FizzBuzz question of printing numbers 1-100, but for each factor of 3 print Fizz, each factor of 5 print Buzz, and each factor of both ...
28
votes
5answers
4k views
Designing a coffee machine
I was recently rejected from what looked like a really promising string of interviews. I did very well in a questionnaire style review, and then they handed me this assignment (more or less):
...
27
votes
2answers
2k views
Asynchronous network callback code
I did not get the job after submitting this piece of work in an interview, but I have no feedback to know what "BAD" things are inside this block of code.
The requirements are:
Connect to the ...
26
votes
10answers
3k views
What are some indicators that I was over-thinking my solution to this problem?
This question is a cross between career question and a code review. I was uncertain where to ask, but since there is code involved I went with CodeReview.
I’m going through the process of technical ...
19
votes
8answers
10k views
Find all the missing number(s)
Recently I've attended an interview, where I faced the below question:
Question: "There is an sorted array. You need to find all the missing numbers. Write the complete code, without using any ...
19
votes
4answers
2k views
Rainfall challenge
About a year ago when I was applying to jobs for the first time, I had an interview at a company and they posed the following problem to me, which I preceded to bomb.
A year later I actually came up ...
17
votes
6answers
2k views
Sales Tax Problem, rejected for not being up to their standards
I applied for a Junior .NET Developer Position recently, and I was asked to solve a problem (Sales Tax Program) and I was rejected for some reason. The question goes like this:
Basic sales tax is ...
17
votes
4answers
13k views
Reverse a string word by word
Given an input string, reverse the string word by word.
For example: Given s = "the sky is blue", return ...
17
votes
5answers
2k views
Parse webpage and save fetched images to a directory
I had a task for a programmer position which I failed. I am a newbie programmer and I accept that. The only problem is that employer never told me what the actual problem with the code is. So maybe ...
17
votes
4answers
1k views
Modelling a Call Center
This is the requirement I have (from the book: Cracking the Coding Interview)
Imagine you have a call center with three levels of employees: fresher, technical lead (TL), and product manager (PM). ...
17
votes
2answers
837 views
Designing another Coffee Machine Application
After reading Designing a coffee machine yesterday, I decided I could also give the same problem a try.
I have used the following problem statement (copied from the given question):
Design a ...
16
votes
7answers
3k views
Solution for kth row of Pascal's triangle for a job interview
Question:
Given an index \$k\$, return the \$k^{th}\$ row of the Pascal's triangle.
For example, given \$k = 3\$, return \$[1,3,3,1]\$. Bonus points for using \$O(k)\$ space.
Can it be ...
15
votes
6answers
3k views
Array whose values are the product of every other integer
I was asked the following interview question over the phone:
Given an array of integers, produce an array whose values are the
product of every other integer excluding the current index.
...
15
votes
4answers
747 views
Determining if an answer can be generated
How can I improve my code below for the following question? While it works, I am not satisfied with how it looks; I was hoping I can somehow keep it recursive, and have the ans filled up inside the ...
15
votes
7answers
49k views
Finding repeating numbers in an array
I want to search through an array of n numbers and find the numbers that are repeated. So far I have this code, which does the job, but I find it to be a rather cumbersome method, but I can't seem to ...
15
votes
3answers
2k views
Finding anagrams - Empires strike back
Recently as part of a job interview I was given the following coding task:
Attached is a gzipped text file of about 100,000 English words. Write a
Python, C or C++ program that finds all the ...
15
votes
5answers
7k views
Longest palindrome in a string
Please be brutal, and judge my code as if it was written at a top 3 tech company, straight out of college. (The method signature, and input parameter is given by the problem, so don't worry about ...
15
votes
3answers
2k views
Reversing k-sized sequences in a linked-list
Here is my solution to this problem; please be brutally honest/strict, if I would have written this code, in a 45 minute interview, what would you think? (I am aiming for Google,Facebook).
Here is ...
15
votes
3answers
7k views
Overlapping rectangles
I received the following question in a technical interview today (for a devops/SRE position):
Write a function which returns true if the two rectangles passed to it
as arguments would overlap if ...
14
votes
11answers
684 views
Reversing a string
I had this as an interview question, and the interviewer pointed this out. Here's what I wrote:
...
14
votes
5answers
635 views
Given a sequence of positive integers A and an integer T, return true if a continuous sequence of A sums up to exactly T
Here is the source of the question, and my solution is below.
Did I determine the worst case correctly?
If you find any input where it doesn't work, please let me know.
...
14
votes
4answers
1k views
Finding the sub-array with the maximum sum - my approach
This is the code I ended up with that implements the approach I described in a recent answer to another question about the same problem
The basic idea here is to not loop through more things than ...
14
votes
3answers
705 views
Sample game code for applying to a development firm
I am contemplating working with a development firm, and had asked for this piece of sample code. Could you please take a look and let me know if this is a quality piece of work, or if it needs ...
14
votes
3answers
3k views
Interview task - SOLID Principle and TDD
I had a small technical C# task using SOLID principle and TDD. But I failed to prove my coding skill through the test.
Can anyone offer any small advice for me? I am really eager to learn what my ...
13
votes
8answers
7k views
Is my AI solution to Untrusted Game considered logical or “ethical”?
I am applying to a university to study Computational Linguistics, and as I read, it would be recommended to have a background in Artificial Intelligence.
The Admission board asked me to prepare a ...
12
votes
6answers
9k views
Implementing a Stack in Java for Technical Interview
This code is based off the Stack implementation in Chapter 3 of Cracking The Coding Interview. I modified the code to make it compile and give me the correct output. I'd appreciate any feedback on ...
12
votes
5answers
703 views
ToString() and AddString() method without using .Net Collections
I was asked to answer the following question before setting up a phone interview, but they said my code wasn't detailed enough.
Question:
Without using any of the .NET Collection or Linq ...
12
votes
4answers
1k views
O(N) vs O(N * N) for Word Frequency Algorithm
I am trying to come up with a better solution to the following problem:
Statement
You are supposed to write a function which takes the contents of a document in string format and also a whole ...
12
votes
3answers
4k views
Find Minimum Number of coins
Please be brutal, and treat this as a top 5 technical interview. I am trying to follow Google's way of writing Java code, as per their .pdf file online of code review. (Side note: do any of you see ...
12
votes
3answers
10k views
Longest Common Prefix in an array of Strings
Please be brutal, and treat this as if I was at an interview at a top 5 tech firm.
Question: Write a function to find the longest common prefix string
amongst an array of strings.
Time it ...
11
votes
7answers
958 views
Scoring a Scrabble Word
I was asked before an interview to create a console application that will work out the score of a word for the board game scrabble. It worked fine but the feedback I received said:
"there were no ...
11
votes
5answers
2k views
Set matrix zeros
I solved this problem in about 11 minutes (with all 50+ test cases passed).
I think most of you already know me by now, and I truly appreciate your advice, but please be brutal and judge me as if I ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
Recursive, nested list traversal
Given a nested list of strings (which may contain other nested lists), print the contents of the list and the corresponding depth.
Here is my solution:
...
11
votes
2answers
538 views
Given a page of content, determine shortest snippet containing all search phrases (no order required)
A recruiter gave me a homework problem as a part of the recruiting process and after receiving my submission he told me that he decided not to proceed with me. When I asked for the reason, he told me ...
11
votes
2answers
163 views
Did not pass the interview about an RPN Calculator
I recently received a simple interview assignment as to implement an RPN calculator in Ruby. The program takes user input and quits when the user presses 'q'.
I did it in under 30 minutes and was ...
11
votes
3answers
680 views
Animated JavaScript/jQuery game
This was a code test I was asked to complete by employer, and since they rejected me, I wonder what should I have done differently.
...
11
votes
2answers
270 views
Espresso Queue simulation
I was asked to do a technical test with the following specification, but my solution was rejected and I was not selected for the available position (Junior to "normal" level, with 4 days of time to ...
11
votes
2answers
604 views
Min triangle path - bottom-up
I got a bit intrigued with the recent question DP solution to min triangle path and after a certain chat message I decided that I wanted to implement my solution.
Given a triangle, find the ...
11
votes
1answer
87 views
Top wiki pages as an app
I recently did an interview task. I was rejected because of bad code quality. There was two tasks. Here I will present the first, second will be posted in time.
This project is avalible on GitHub
...
10
votes
4answers
827 views
Method to count all comments in single external C# file
I recently had an interview question:
Write a method that counts all comments in a single external file.
It was a timed question and I wanted to know if this is the best way to accomplish the ...
10
votes
3answers
516 views
Exception handling, et al - How do I make this web downloader not “poor”?
I haven't done Java coding in years, but I thought I would give it a shot for a job interview. I have a few questions:
Why is this error handling considered poor? How am I supposed to be doing it?
...
10
votes
3answers
6k views
List all possible numbers from a given array that sums up to a given number
I have to solve the following problem: Given an array of integers and given an integer value, list all possible numbers frm the array that sums up to the given value.
Example:
Input: array = {1, 2, ...
10
votes
4answers
3k views
Counting occurrences of each word in a sentence
I have been doing this test task for C# Developer role at UBS.London recently and have been rejected. No reason stated yet. Was wondering if you can take a look and provide feedback on what I can do ...
