Python Interview with a FAANG engineer

Feedback about Superimmune Chameleon (the interviewee)

Advance this person to the next round?

No

# 08/26/2023 Superimmune Chameleon, Standard Interview ## **Feedback** ### Core considerations/ Expectations - Communication should be spot on - Testing: Should be able to construct test cases quickly. - Assumptions about code were made ### Positives - Overall excellent communication, clear and easy to follow. - Great work picking on the node presentation and tree presentation to create a tree manually. Use this approach if needed for quick tree generation in case you are ever need to run your code. - Good line of question on the inputs. - Excellent work taking the hints and running with them. It was good seeing you switch up to using cleaner loops in the seek part of the algorithm. - Excellent complexity analysis. It was good that you thought of the worst case here. That said, use general ### **Points of Improvement** - Avoid committing to an implementation technique like recursion without first flashing how the solution would work. This helps avoid locking you in a tunnel where you try to fit the technique to the solution eg forcing recursion. Flash out the intuition first ensures you are coding the correct approach. - Needed a hint but overall, was able to easily see how parent tracking would give us a path that includes the LCA. In an interview, this would be something the interviewer expects you to see on your own. - The recursive approach to building the list while valid, is a bit unconventional and makes the code unnecessarily complex. You make H (height) recursive calls each with a set of unique params and this makes your code quite heavy. You could bypass this by having a shared object to store the ancestor. - A loop would have made the helper logic a lot cleaner - Take lead in doing the time and space complexity analysis. You would be expected at senior to always want to do this analysis. - ### **Resources** Standard Interview Resources **Self Study General Prep Spreadsheet (Mainly algorithms but also system design)** Software Engineer Study Guide https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19vhVZ18LAvZTtKWn-cuJzto3AMpJ1npYK4vDWppDnrQ/edit?usp=sharing Coding Interviews starter questions # Starter Questions Technical interviews can be daunting, but preparing beforehand can help you feel more confident. One effective way to prepare is to familiarize yourself with common patterns of technical interview questions. Here are some examples: ## Pattern 1: Arrays Here are some additional examples for the Arrays pattern: 1. Search in Rotated Sorted Array - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min 2. Jump Game - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min 3. Merge Intervals - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 35 min ## Pattern 2: Linked Lists 1. Reverse Linked List - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 25 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/reverse-linked-list/) 2. Linked List Cycle - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 30 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/linked-list-cycle/) 3. Merge Two Sorted Lists - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 35 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/merge-two-sorted-lists/) 4. Palindrome Linked List - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/palindrome-linked-list/) 5. Intersection of Two Linked Lists - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/intersection-of-two-linked-lists/) ## Pattern 3: Strings Here are some additional examples to replace the easy ones with more challenging ones: 1. Reverse Words in a String - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 30 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/reverse-words-in-a-string/) 2. Group Shifted Strings - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/group-shifted-strings/) 3. Longest Substring with At Least K Repeating Characters - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 50 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/longest-substring-with-at-least-k-repeating-characters/) 4. String Compression - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 30 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/string-compression/) 5. Palindromic Substrings - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 50 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/palindromic-substrings/) ## Pattern 4: Trees 1. Path Sum III - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/path-sum-iii/) 2. Construct Binary Tree from Preorder and Inorder Traversal - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/construct-binary-tree-from-preorder-and-inorder-traversal/) 3. Binary Tree Zigzag Level Order Traversal - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 50 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/binary-tree-zigzag-level-order-traversal/) 4. Subtree of Another Tree - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 30 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/subtree-of-another-tree/) 5. Diameter of Binary Tree - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 30 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/diameter-of-binary-tree/) ## Pattern 5: Dynamic Programming 1. Longest Palindromic Substring - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/longest-palindromic-substring/) 2. Maximum Subarray - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 30 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/maximum-subarray/) 3. House Robber II - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/house-robber-ii/) 4. Counting Bits - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 35 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/counting-bits/) 5. Longest Increasing Path in a Matrix - Difficulty: Hard, Estimated Time: 90 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/longest-increasing-path-in-a-matrix/) ## Pattern 6: Hash Tables 1. Top K Frequent Elements - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 35 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/top-k-frequent-elements/) 2. Intersection of Two Arrays II - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 25 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/intersection-of-two-arrays-ii/) 3. Longest Substring with At Most Two Distinct Characters - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/longest-substring-with-at-most-two-distinct-characters/) 4. Minimum Window Substring - Difficulty: Hard, Estimated Time: 90 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/minimum-window-substring/) 5. Group Anagrams - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 35 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/group-anagrams/) ## Pattern 7: Binary Search 1. Find Peak Element - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 35 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/find-peak-element/) 2. Search a 2D Matrix - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 30 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/search-a-2d-matrix/) 3. Kth Smallest Element in a Sorted Matrix - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/kth-smallest-element-in-a-sorted-matrix/) 4. Search in a Sorted Array of Unknown Size - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/search-in-a-sorted-array-of-unknown-size/) 5. Median of Two Sorted Arrays - Difficulty: Hard, Estimated Time: 90 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/median-of-two-sorted-arrays/) ## Pattern 8: Graphs 1. Minimum Knight Moves - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/minimum-knight-moves/) 2. Cheapest Flights Within K Stops - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 50 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/cheapest-flights-within-k-stops/) 3. Course Schedule - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/course-schedule/) 4. Number of Connected Components in an Undirected Graph - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 35 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/number-of-connected-components-in-an-undirected-graph/) 5. Word Ladder - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 50 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/word-ladder/) ## Backtracking 1. Letter Combinations of a Phone Number - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 35 min 2. Subsets - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 35 min 3. Permutations - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min 4. Combination Sum - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 50 min 5. Word Search - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min ## Depth First Search (DFS) 1. Number of Islands - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min 2. Surrounded Regions - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min 3. Max Area of Island - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min 4. Pacific Atlantic Water Flow - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 50 min 5. All Paths From Source to Target - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min ## Breadth First Search (BFS) 1. Surrounded Regions - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min 2. Clone Graph - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min 3. Shortest Path in a Binary Matrix - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 50 min 4. Walls and Gates - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min 5. Course Schedule II - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min ## Greedy Algorithms 1. Jump Game II - Difficulty: Hard, Estimated Time: 90 min 2. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock II - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 25 min 3. Task Scheduler - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 50 min 4. Minimum Number of Arrows to Burst Balloons - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min 5. Jump Game - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min ### Recursion 1. Fibonacci Number - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 20 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/fibonacci-number/) 2. Climbing Stairs - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 20 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/climbing-stairs/) 3. Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum - Difficulty: Hard, Estimated Time: 90 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/binary-tree-maximum-path-sum/) 4. Unique Paths III - Difficulty: Hard, Estimated Time: 60 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/unique-paths-iii/) 5. Combination Sum III - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 35 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/combination-sum-iii/) ### Dynamic Programming 1. Longest Increasing Subsequence - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 45 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/longest-increasing-subsequence/) 2. Unique Paths - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 30 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/unique-paths/) 3. Coin Change - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/coin-change/) 4. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock - Difficulty: Easy, Estimated Time: 25 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/best-time-to-buy-and-sell-stock/) 5. Word Break - Difficulty: Medium, Estimated Time: 40 min - [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/word-break/)

Feedback about The Legendary Avenger (the interviewer)

Would you want to work with this person?

Yes

This was my first experience in an interviewing.io meeting. My interviewer was phenomenal. He gave me a lot of room to explore the problem and test my ideas, which revealed where I would run into trouble. After working for a while and receveing some assistance, I was able to come up with a naive working solution. The interviewer then took me through a really helpful tour of many different approaches that could be used to solve the problem and gave me insight into the inner workings of each. I really felt both challenged and supported throughout the interview. I would highly recommend my interviewer and the platform.