Open In App

Microsoft IDC Interview Experience

Improve
Improve
Like Article
Like
Save
Share
Report

Test:

  • Find first non-repeating character in the string.
    Input: “aabcbd”
    Output: c
  • K-reverse linked list
    Input: 1 2 3 4 5 -1          k = 3
    Output: 3 2 1 5 4
  • Cut short binary search tree in the range of given integers.
    Input: 7 5 10 4 6 8 -1 2 -1 -1 -1 -1 9 1 3 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 (level order input)
    Lower range = 4 upper range = 8
    Output:
    7: 5, 8
    5: 4, 6
    8: -1, 9
    4: -1, -1
    6: -1, -1
    9: -1, -1

Around 200-300 people gave this round and 80 were able to clear it.

Group fly round:

  • Remove and replace the character ‘c’ from a given input string by double characters “**”
    Input: “calcic”
    Output: **al**i**
  • Given a binary tree whose structure is as below
    Class BSTspecial{
    public:
      BSTspecial* parent = NULL;
      BSTspecial* left = NULL;
      BSTspecial* right = NULL;
      int data;
      BSTspecial(int data){
        this->data = data;
      }
    };

    Given a node (note it can be either of nodes of the tree whether it is root or not) you need to find its immediate right sibling/cousin if any or return NULL if not present.

    Input:
    1 2 3 4 5 -1 6 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1(level order input)
    For node ‘5’ answer is ‘6’
    For node ‘4’ answer is ‘5’
    For node ‘6’ answer is -1
    For node ‘1’ answer is -1

Out of 80 people, 14 were shortlisted for interviews.

Interview:

Round #1:

  • What do you understand by time complexity? And what was your time complexity for the question which were asked in group fly?
  • You are given n strings and a string joining function which takes two arguments (both strings) its time complexity is such than it is the sum of lengths of both the strings.
    If s1 is k units long and s2 is l units long T.C = O(k + l)

    Now, you are required to generate an algorithm such that minimal time is taken to join n strings.

    Strings: s1, s2, s3, s4, ……………………………, sn.

    Lengths: l1, l2, l3, l4, ……………………………., ln.

    Hint: O(log(n)*(l1 + l2 + l3 + …….. + ln)) might not be the best way, this only works for  strings with almost equal length.

  • Find whether a given linked list is palindrome or not.
    Without extra space in O(n) and not breaking any links.

    Note: recursion’s stack space will be ignored.

Round #2:

  • Return a data structure from a given tree such that all the children of each node point towards their respective parent and root node towards NULL.

    Discuss the time complexity of the approach.

    And then I was asked to improve it.

Due to late night Round #3 and HR were clubbed we were only 4 people, but I was asked to leave.


Last Updated : 25 Oct, 2018
Like Article
Save Article
Previous
Next
Share your thoughts in the comments
Similar Reads