Problem Solving and Analytical Thinking Questions

Evaluates a candidate's systematic and logical approach to unfamiliar, ambiguous, or complex problems across technical, product, business, security, and operational contexts. Candidates should be able to clarify objectives and constraints, ask effective clarifying questions, decompose problems into smaller components, identify root causes, form and test hypotheses, and enumerate and compare multiple solution options. Interviewers look for clear reasoning about trade offs and edge cases, avoidance of premature conclusions, use of repeatable frameworks or methodologies, prioritization of investigations, design of safe experiments and measurement of outcomes, iteration based on feedback, validation of fixes, documentation of results, and conversion of lessons learned into process improvements. Responses should clearly communicate the thought process, justify choices, surface assumptions and failure modes, and demonstrate learning from prior problem solving experiences.

EasyTechnical

0 practiced

Write a JavaScript function isBalanced(s) that returns true if the string s has balanced parentheses of types (), {}, and []. Provide a correct O(n) time, O(n) space implementation and example input/output. Also state how you would extend to ignore characters inside string literals.

MediumTechnical

0 practiced

Implement BFS shortest path in Python for an unweighted graph given as adjacency list. The function should return both distances and parent pointers for path reconstruction from a source node. Include time/space complexity and example input/output with a disconnected node.

MediumTechnical

0 practiced

You detect PII appearing in application logs. Outline an investigative plan that includes detection (pattern search, sampling), containment (redact or rotate), verification of exposure scope, and remediation to prevent recurrence. Mention compliance and stakeholder communication considerations.

HardTechnical

0 practiced

Identify and fix the concurrency bug in the Java code below where multiple threads increment a shared counter. Explain why the code is broken and provide a thread-safe, high-performance solution including considerations for lock contention.

public class Counter { private int count = 0; public void increment() { count++; } public int get() { return count; }}

Provide corrected code and explain trade-offs between AtomicInteger, synchronized, and LongAdder.

HardTechnical

0 practiced

Design a canary deployment and rollback policy for a critical payment service that minimizes customer impact while enabling rapid rollback when errors spike. Specify rollout percentages, metrics to monitor (errors, success rate, payment latency), automated rollback triggers, and human-in-the-loop approval steps.

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