American Express (AMEX) OA Experience (2026) | 3 Coding Questions
Today I appeared for the American Express Online Assessment. The coding round had 3 questions, and I found it quite implementation-heavy.
Question 1
We were given a 3×3 grid containing stones. Some cells could have multiple stones while others were empty.
Task: Move stones between adjacent cells so that every cell ends up with exactly one stone. Return the minimum number of moves required.
Closest LeetCode: 2850. Minimum Moves to Spread Stones Over Grid
Question 2
We were given:
- A set of coordinate points
(x, y) - A rectangle perimeter
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The task was to place an axis-aligned rectangle (subject to the perimeter constraint) such that it contains the maximum number of given points, and return that maximum count.
This felt like a computational geometry + sliding window / two pointers problem. I couldn't find an exact LeetCode equivalent.
Question 3
A pizza ordering problem with 4 different discount schemes.
The implementation involved creating separate discount functions and using structs/classes to represent pizzas and apply discounts correctly. The logic itself wasn't extremely difficult, but the amount of implementation made it time-consuming.
Overall, this OA tested:
- Implementation skills
- Greedy thinking
- Geometry
- Simulation
- Clean C++ coding with structs/classes
If anyone knows the exact LeetCode equivalents (especially for Question 2 and Question 3), please share them in the comments. It would really help everyone preparing for future AMEX OAs.
Good luck to everyone preparing for placements!