bloomberg | Software Engineer | Interview Experience
Interview Date: Not specified
Result: Not specified
Difficulty: Not specified
Interview Process
The interview began with a self-introduction and a discussion about past projects, lasting approximately 10 minutes. The remainder of the interview was spent solving a problem similar to those found on LeetCode. The candidate proposed a brute force O(N^2) solution but did not have time to optimize it to O(N), only mentioning that memoization could be used for optimization. The candidate received a rejection a few days later but was not particularly concerned, as the interview was primarily for practice.
Technical Questions
- Problem: You are an alien operating in Earth’s orbit, with multiple fuel drop points represented by two numbers - position and fuel mileage. You can start from any drop point and need to determine the maximum distance you can travel. The Earth’s surface is circular, so positions wrap around after reaching 100. Once fuel is used, it cannot be reused.
- Example Input: [(10, 10), (20, 10), (40, 100)]
- Starting from the last point (position 40), you can collect enough fuel to travel a total of 120 miles.
- Example Input: [(10, 10), (20, 20), (41, 1)]
- Starting from the first point (position 10), you can collect only 30 miles and cannot gather all the fuel regardless of the starting point.
- Example Input: [(10, 10), (20, 10), (40, 100)]
Tips & Insights
- Approach interviews as a practice opportunity, regardless of the outcome.