Cracking Citadel's Tough Intern Interview: Mastering Probability and Leetcode Challenges

Software Engineering
, , , ,
1

citadel | Intern | Interview Experience

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

Interview Process

The interview process consisted of a single video call that lasted approximately 45 minutes. The interviewer began by discussing the candidate’s resume, followed by two technical questions.

Technical Questions

  1. Expectation (Probability): Calculate the expected number of coin tosses until getting either three heads in a row (HHH) or three tails in a row (TTT).
  2. Majority Element: Implement a solution for LeetCode problem 169, which requires finding the majority element in an array using O(1) space. The candidate was expected to use the Boyer-Moore Voting Algorithm.

Tips & Insights

The candidate noted that while they had previously solved the majority element problem, they struggled to recall the solution during the interview and found the coding process challenging.