Mastering the Counter Class: My Challenging Uber Software Engineer Interview

Software Engineering
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uber | Software Engineer | Interview Experience

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

Interview Process

The interview was conducted online and focused on a technical assessment. The candidate was asked to design a Counter class that manages elements with expiration times.

Technical Questions

  • Counter Class (Hash Table, Design)
    Write a Counter class where each element has an expiration time provided during initialization. Implement the following functions:

    • put(element): Adds an element to the Counter.
    • get_count(element): Returns the current valid count of the specified element in the Counter.
    • get_total_count(): Returns the total count of all valid elements in the Counter.

    Example Usage:

    counter(window=10)
time 1: counter.put('a')
time 3: counter.put('a')
time 5: counter.put('b')
time 6: counter.get_count('a') -> 2
time 6: counter.get_total_count() -> 3
time 12: counter.get_count('a') -> 1
time 12: counter.get_total_count() -> 2

Tips & Insights

Focus on understanding data structures and their applications, particularly in managing time-sensitive data.