Google L3 | Phone Screening | Interview
Summary
I recently had a phone screening interview for an L3 role at Google, where I was presented with two challenging string manipulation problems, both of which I successfully solved.
Full Experience
I recently underwent a phone screening interview for an L3 position at Google. The interview focused heavily on my problem-solving skills, and I was given two distinct coding challenges related to string encoding and decoding. I managed to solve both problems during the interview session, feeling confident in my approaches.
Interview Questions (2)
Given an encoded string, return its decoded string. The encoding rule is: k[encoded_string], where the encoded_string inside the square brackets is being repeated exactly k times. You may assume that the input string is always valid; No extra white spaces, square brackets are well-formed, etc.
Input: s = "3[a]2[bc]"
Output: "aaabcbc"
Given a decoded string, find the shortest possible encoded string. The encoding rule is: k[encoded_string], where k is the number of times encoded_string repeats. The goal is to minimize the length of the encoded string.
Input: s = "aaabcbc"
Output: "3[a]2[bc]"