LinkedIn PhoneScreen Rejected - SSE
Summary
I recently interviewed for a Senior Software Engineer position at LinkedIn and unfortunately, didn't make it to the next round. I am sharing my experience and the questions I faced to help others preparing for similar roles.
Full Experience
I recently interviewed for a Senior Software Engineer position at LinkedIn. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the next round, but I wanted to share the questions and my experience to help others preparing for similar roles.
The Process: 1 Hour Technical Phone Screen
Interview Questions (2)
Minimum Steps to Open the Lock
You are given a lock with 4 circular wheels. Each wheel has 10 slots: '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'.
The wheels can rotate freely and wrap around. For example, you can turn a '9' forward to become a '0', or turn a '0' backward to become a '9'. Each single move consists of turning exactly one wheel one slot forward or backward.
The lock initially starts at the combination "0000".
You are provided with:
A list of deadends (array of strings). If the lock displays any combination present in this list, the wheels jam, and you can no longer make any moves.
A target combination (string) that represents the code to open the lock.
The Task: Write a function to return the minimum total number of turns required to reach the target combination from "0000". If it is impossible to reach the target without hitting a deadend, return -1.
Inverse Nested List Weight Sum
You are given a nested list of integers. Each element in the list can either be a single integer or another nested list (which may contain further integers or lists).
The depth of an integer is defined by how many lists it is nested inside. The maximum depth is the depth of the most deeply nested integer in the entire structure.
The weight of each integer is calculated using the formula:
Weight=MaximumDepth−CurrentDepth+1
The Task:
Write a function to calculate the total sum of all integers in the list, where each integer is multiplied by its calculated weight. The solution needs to be highly optimized, ideally calculating the sum in a single pass without needing to traverse the list first just to find the maximum depth.
Example Breakdown:
Input: {1, {2, 2}, {2, {3, 2}}}
Maximum Depth: 3
Calculation:
The first 1 is at Depth 1. Its weight is (3−1+1)=3. Value: 1×3=3.
The first {2, 2} are at Depth 2. Their weight is (3−2+1)=2. Value: (2+2)×2=8.
The second 2 is at Depth 2. Its weight is (3−2+1)=2. Value: 2×2=4.
The {3, 2} are at Depth 3. Their weight is (3−3+1)=1. Value: (3+2)×1=5.
Total Output: 3+8+4+5=20.