I have an experience of around 6 years in IT Service based industry, I don't have CS background so Algo's still trouble me, I am trying to understand basics and go deeper, one brick at a time. Hopefully I will get there.
The interview was actually very easy but I did not clear the interview because I did not practice enough and was not ready and got my basics wrong in few questions too.
I got only a single day to get ready and brush up for the interview, they were pressing for a quick interview, no idea why.
First round
Algorithm round
Q1:
We are given a string of 1's and 0's, split the array into two parts such that the sum of count of 0's on the left part and 1's on the right part is maximum
ex: 1001110 --> we should split this like 100 and 1110
My Ans: It was typical DP question, didn't get the answer correctly, but got the solution soon after the interviewQ2:
You are given a string of numbers and alphabets, create a string such that no two alphabets or numbers are adjucent to each other.
count(digits)-count(alphabets) <=1
ex: ab12dc34 should be converted to a1b2c3d4
My Ans: I gave the correct solution here, I missed the edge cases initially though.Second Round
Started with some puzzles,
You are given a triangle, give a point on a side such that joining that point with the opposite vertex will divide the triangle into two equal areas.
Ans: very easy, (base * altitude) /2 is area, so draw a line from a vertex to the middle of opposite base
Egg droping question, what is the idea behind that to solving it, how would you chose. I felt like he did not understand what I was trying to convey, may be I did not understand exactly what he wanted me to do in that question. I felt so because if you know this problem, then its straightforward
Then there were few basic Java questions which I partly messed up, which I usually answer with my eyes closed if it was not an interview, may be the the tension of not being able to prepare for the interview got me there.
Next was a sort of design question,
I was asked to redesign a small factory pattern based code such that we won't have to modify the factory everytime we add a new feature. He was xpecting me to do that using visitor pattern, but I did not feel that was suitable approach to the question. I solved it using Java 8 Function class. I don't remember the exact question, so I can't add it.
Third Round
This was HM round,
He asked about my project, and then asked about how would you implement so and so feature in my project, what would be my ideal approach to do that. Discussed that for around 30 mins and then I felt like he was OK with approach I suggested and then he asked me how would I design a feature in my project if I had some constraints. He gave a few constraints related to the working of my project. I was able to answer that very quickly, and then it was done. I asked a few questions to them too and we finished it.
I followed up a few times, but never heard from them again. Its been around 3 weeks.
I would be happy if I atleast received confirmation. May be even like, sorry you didn't make it. try again in few...... or so.
If anyone know what is the cooldown period in walmart, please mention.
This was my experience, I have learnt a few lessons and hope to keep improving myself to be better and do better. I hope everyone reading this too learned something useful from my experience and put it to good use for yourself or your friends.
I will continue my learning and sometime along the way I will make it through one of those interviews.
Update:-- They did finally reach out and confirm that they are not considering me anymore for that position. Better late than never. :)