Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Senior Software Engineer Interview Questions and Answers

Two Medium DSA problem to solve

Q1. Design scalable Streaming pipeline and
Ans. 
Design a scalable streaming pipeline for processing large volumes of data.
• Use a distributed streaming framework like Apache Kafka or Apache Flink for real-time data processing.

• Implement data partitioning and parallel processing to handle high data throughput.

• Utilize cloud services like AWS Kinesis or Google Cloud Pub/Sub for scalability and reliability.

• Include fault tolerance mechanisms like checkpointing and data repl...read more
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Q1. LLD round , write classes and its methods
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Q1. Salary and benefits discussion
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Got 2 medium level DSA questions in the coding test

Q1. Computer fundamentals
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Q2. System Design Questions
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Q1. Why you want to join ?
Ans. 
I am excited about the opportunity to work on challenging projects and contribute to a talented team.
• Passionate about software development and problem-solving

• Interested in working on cutting-edge technologies

• Excited about collaborating with a talented team to create innovative solutions
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Linkedlist, tree, logical

Q1. Explian oops concepts
Ans. 
Object-oriented programming concepts that focus on classes and objects for better code organization and reusability.
• Encapsulation: Bundling data and methods that operate on the data into a single unit (class).

• Inheritance: Ability of a class to inherit properties and behavior from another class.

• Polymorphism: Ability to present the same interface for different data types.

• Abstraction: Hiding the complex implementation det...read more
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Q2. Types of waits in selenium
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Types of waits in Selenium include implicit, explicit, and fluent waits.
• Implicit wait: Waits for a certain amount of time before throwing a NoSuchElementException.

• Explicit wait: Waits for a certain condition to occur before proceeding further in the code.

• Fluent wait: Waits for a condition to be true with a specified frequency of checking.

• Example: driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
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Q1. Salary dsicussion
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Q2. Previous company details
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They give a standard application to develop in mvvm or clean architecture, don't forget to write unit tests

Q1. Mostly discuss on the implementation of the project you've done in round one
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Q2. Flutter is addon
Ans. 
Flutter is a UI toolkit for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase.
• Flutter is an open-source framework developed by Google.

• It uses the Dart programming language.

• Flutter allows for hot reload, which enables developers to see changes instantly.

• It provides a rich set of pre-built widgets for building user interfaces.

• Flutter can be used to create apps for iOS, Android, w
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Q3. Explain about compose way of thinking.
Ans. 
Compose way of thinking involves breaking down complex problems into smaller, manageable parts and then combining them to create a solution.
• Break down a problem into smaller components

• Solve each component individually

• Combine the solutions to create a complete solution

• Example: Using functions to break down a complex task into smaller functions and then combining them to achieve the desired outcome
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Q4. Difference between presenter and viewmodel
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Q5. Explain about lifecycle of view
Ans. 
Lifecycle of view refers to the stages a view goes through from creation to destruction in an application.
• Creation: View is initialized and loaded into memory.

• Layout: View is positioned and sized on the screen.

• Display: View is rendered and displayed to the user.

• Interaction: User interacts with the view through input events.

• Destruction: View is removed from memory when no longer needed.
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Q1. Difference between var, let, const.
Ans. 
var, let, and const are all used to declare variables in JavaScript, but they have different scoping rules and behaviors.
• var has function scope and can be redeclared and reassigned

• let has block scope and can be reassigned but not redeclared

• const has block scope and cannot be reassigned or redeclared

• Use const for values that won't change, let for values that will, and avoid var
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Q2. Explain CSS box model. Do padding and margin apply to inline elements?
Ans. 
CSS box model defines the layout of elements on a webpage. Padding and margin can apply to block-level elements but not to inline elements.
• CSS box model consists of content, padding, border, and margin around an element.

• Padding adds space inside the border of an element.

• Margin adds space outside the border of an element.

• Padding and margin can apply to block-level elements like <div> but not to inline elements lik
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Q3. Difference between arrow functions and regular ones.
Ans. 
Arrow functions are shorter syntax for writing function expressions.
• Arrow functions do not have their own 'this' keyword.

• Arrow functions cannot be used as constructors.

• Arrow functions do not have the 'arguments' object.

• Arrow functions are more concise and easier to read.

• Regular functions are better for methods and constructors.
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Q4. How does JavaScript asynchronous model work
Ans. 
JavaScript asynchronous model allows non-blocking code execution by using callbacks and promises.
• JavaScript uses an event loop to handle asynchronous operations.

• Callbacks are functions passed as arguments to other functions and executed when the operation is complete.

• Promises are objects that represent the eventual completion or failure of an asynchronous operation.

• Async/await is a newer syntax that allows writing asyn...read more
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Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

It was an coding round

Q1. 
The Skyline Problem
Compute the skyline of given rectangular buildings in a 2D city, eliminating hidden lines and forming the outer contour of the silhouette when viewed from a distance. Each building is ...read more
Ans. 
Compute the skyline of given rectangular buildings in a 2D city, eliminating hidden lines and forming the outer contour of the silhouette.
• Iterate through the buildings and create a list of critical points (x, y) where the height changes.

• Sort the critical points based on x-coordinate and process them to form the skyline.

• Merge consecutive horizontal segments of equal height into one to ensure no duplicates.

• Return the fin...read more
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Q2. 
Rat in a Maze Problem Statement
You need to determine all possible paths for a rat starting at position (0, 0) in a square maze to reach its destination at (N-1, N-1). The maze is represented as an N*N ma...read more
Ans. 
Find all possible paths for a rat in a maze from source to destination.
• Use backtracking to explore all possible paths in the maze.

• Keep track of visited cells to avoid revisiting them.

• Recursively try moving in all directions (up, down, left, right) until reaching the destination.

• Return a list of strings representing valid paths sorted in alphabetical order.
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Round duration - 30 Minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

It was an HR round with some general questions. it was just for formality.