10+ Bank of America Software Developer Interview Questions and Answers

The problem involves determining the minimum number of operations needed to make a binary string beautiful by ensuring it contains alternating 0s and 1s.

• Iterate through the binary string and count the number of operations needed to make it beautiful by flipping the bits as required.

• Keep track of the current bit and compare it with the next bit to determine if a flip operation is needed.

• Return the total number of operations needed for each test case.

Reverse a singly linked list of integers and return the head of the reversed linked list.

• Iterate through the linked list and reverse the pointers to point to the previous node instead of the next node.

• Use three pointers to keep track of the current, previous, and next nodes while reversing the linked list.

• Update the head of the reversed linked list as the last node encountered during the reversal process.

Find the sum of numbers divisible by 2 or 3 from a given list of numbers.

• Iterate through the list of numbers and check if each number is divisible by 2 or 3.

• If a number is divisible by 2 or 3, add it to the sum.

• Return the final sum as the output.

The task is to print two strings in an alternating sequence by indices.

• Iterate through both strings simultaneously and append characters alternately

• Handle the case where one string is longer than the other

• Use two pointers to keep track of the current index in each string

Find the fourth largest element in an array of integers.

• Sort the array in descending order to easily find the fourth largest element.

• If the array has less than four distinct elements, return -2147483648.

• Handle edge cases like empty array or array with less than four elements.

Implement Merge Sort algorithm to sort a sequence of numbers in non-descending order.

• Divide the input array into two halves recursively until each array has only one element.

• Merge the sorted halves to produce a completely sorted array.

• Time complexity of Merge Sort is O(n log n).

• Example: Input - [3, 1, 4, 1, 5], Output - [1, 1, 3, 4, 5]

Check if the binary representation of a given integer is a palindrome.

• Convert the integer to binary and check if the binary string is a palindrome.

• Use bitwise operations to manipulate the binary representation of the integer.

• Consider edge cases like handling leading zeros in the binary representation.

Yes, the quick sort algorithm can be enhanced to achieve NlogN complexity in the worst case by using a randomized pivot selection strategy.

• Randomized pivot selection: Choose a random element as the pivot to reduce the chances of worst-case scenarios.

• Median-of-three pivot selection: Select the median of the first, middle, and last elements as the pivot to improve partitioning.

• Optimizing partitioning: Use efficient partitioning techniques like Hoare's partition scheme or Dutch ...read more

Find pairs in a sorted doubly-linked list whose sum equals a given integer 'X'.

• Traverse the list from both ends to find pairs with sum equal to 'X'.

• Use two pointers approach to efficiently find the pairs.

• Handle cases where the sum is less than, equal to, or greater than 'X'.

Answer: Ask the assassin, 'Will you hang me?' If he answers 'yes', then he should shoot you. If he answers 'no', then he should hang you.

• Ask the assassin a question that will force him to give an answer that contradicts his actions.

• The question should create a paradox or a situation where both answers lead to the opposite outcome.

• In this case, asking the assassin if he will hang you will force him to give an answer that contradicts his actions.

Detect and remove loop in a singly linked list in place with O(n) time complexity and O(1) space complexity.

• Use Floyd's Cycle Detection Algorithm to identify the loop in the linked list.

• Once the loop is detected, use two pointers to find the start of the loop.

• Adjust the pointers to remove the loop and return the modified linked list.

The longest alphabetical sequence in a string of combined numbers can be separated using string manipulation and iteration.

• Iterate through the string character by character

• Check if the current character is alphabetical

• If it is, start building a substring of alphabetical characters

• If the next character is also alphabetical, add it to the substring

• If the next character is not alphabetical, compare the length of the current substring to the longest substring found so far

• If the c...read more

Covered core programming concepts include data structures, algorithms, object-oriented programming, and software design patterns.

• Data structures such as arrays, linked lists, stacks, queues, trees, and graphs were covered.

• Algorithms like sorting, searching, recursion, and dynamic programming were studied.

• Object-oriented programming principles like inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism were implemented.

• Software design patterns such as singleton, factory, observer, and s...read more