Cracking Bloomberg's Software Engineer Interview: BFS Challenge & Strategy Insights

bloomberg | Software Engineer | Interview Experience

Interview Date: Not specified
Result: Not specified
Difficulty: Not specified

Interview Process

The interview focused on a coding challenge involving a 2D character array representing a desert, with ‘c’ for the car and ‘o’ for the oasis. The task was to find the shortest number of steps from the car to the oasis. The candidate was required to write the code without executing it.

Technical Questions

  • Breadth-First Search: Implement an algorithm to find the shortest path in a 2D grid.

Follow-up Questions

  1. If the car has a limited amount of gas, how would you modify your algorithm?
  2. If there are gas stations in the grid that provide additional gas, how would you adjust your algorithm?

Tips & Insights

The candidate felt that the questions were manageable and appreciated the friendly demeanor of the interviewer.