Summary
I attended the Scalar Academy on-campus SDE coding round, which featured two direct LeetCode problems: 'Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock IV' and 'Divide Two Integers'. The experience reinforced the importance of thoroughly practicing common LeetCode medium and hard problems.
Full Experience
Scalar Academy visited my college for the SDE profile, offering a CTC of 25 LPA with a one-year WFH internship, including a 35k stipend. The entire placement test was conducted online. The online coding round consisted of two problems, both directly copied from LeetCode. I encountered 'Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock IV' and 'Divide Two Integers'. Other question sets also featured similar problems from LeetCode. My personal observation suggests that problems 1-600/700 on LeetCode cover all standard algorithms, and subsequent questions are variations of these. Therefore, if you have limited time, focusing on problems within this range significantly increases your chances of performing well in coding rounds.
Interview Questions (2)
You are given an integer array prices where prices[i] is the price of a given stock on the ith day, and an integer k. Find the maximum profit you can achieve. You may complete at most k transactions. You may not engage in multiple transactions simultaneously (i.e., you must sell the stock before you buy again). If you complete multiple transactions, you must be able to sell the previous stock before buying another one.
Given two integers dividend and divisor, divide two integers without using multiplication, division, and modulo operators. Return the quotient as an integer. The integer division should truncate toward zero, which means fractional parts are discarded. For example, -7 / 3 = -2. Assume we are dealing with an environment that can only store integers within the 32-bit signed integer range: [−231, 231 − 1]. For the purpose of this problem, if the quotient is strictly greater than 231 − 1, then return 231 − 1, and if the quotient is strictly less than −231, then return −231.
Preparation Tips
I highly recommend solving LeetCode medium questions and standard algorithms from the hard section. Based on my observations, problems 1-600/700 on LeetCode cover all the standard algorithms, and subsequent questions are often variations of these. Therefore, if you have limited time, focusing on these initial problems can be highly effective for coding rounds.