Rejected

Microsoft Interview

SDE-1

Data StructuresAlgorithmsBFS

The candidate initially proposed a sub-optimal recursive approach followed by a per-house BFS approach.

The interviewer challenged the candidate's logic regarding the visited array management during the BFS process.

The candidate successfully defended the necessity of maintaining a global minimum distance matrix while explaining the multi-source BFS optimization.

The interviewer acknowledged a momentary confusion and expressed satisfaction with the candidate's final optimized approach.

Given a 2D matrix of houses (H) and stores (S), find the minimum moves from each house to the nearest store.

GraphsBFSMatrix

String ManipulationBehavioralProject Discussion

The round began with a discussion on favorite subjects and project experiences.

The candidate clarified requirements regarding overlapping tags and repeated occurrences before starting the implementation.

Ensure a thorough understanding of the problem statement before coding to avoid solving the wrong problem.
Avoid over-complicating the problem by asking unnecessary questions that might make the implementation more tedious than required.
Time management is crucial; ensure the approach is validated before committing to code.