Pathlock Senior Software Engineer Interview Questions and Answers

To check if a number is a power of 2, we can use bitwise operations.

• A power of 2 has only one bit set to 1, so we can use the bitwise AND operator to check if the number is a power of 2.

• If n is a power of 2, then n & (n-1) will be 0.

• For example, 8 (1000 in binary) is a power of 2, and 8 & 7 (0111 in binary) is 0.

Sort a stack without using another data structure

• Use recursion to pop the top element and insert it at the bottom of the remaining stack

• Repeat until the stack is sorted in ascending order

• Time complexity: O(n^2), space complexity: O(n) due to recursion

Check if array has continuous increasing and decreasing values

• Loop through the array and check if each element is greater than the previous one

• Once you find the maximum element, check if the remaining elements are in decreasing order

• If yes, return true else false

Design a cricinfo (LLD)

• Identify the entities: players, teams, matches, scorecards, tournaments, etc.

• Define the relationships between entities

• Create a database schema to store the data

• Implement APIs to fetch and update data

• Design a UI to display the information

• Consider scalability and performance

• Ensure data security and privacy

IPC mechanism in Windows allows communication between processes through shared memory, message passing, and synchronization.

• IPC mechanisms in Windows include named pipes, mailslots, shared memory, and sockets.

• Named pipes allow communication between processes on the same machine or over a network.

• Mailslots are used for one-way interprocess communication.

• Shared memory allows processes to share data by mapping a region of...read more

Multi-threading in Windows allows multiple threads to run concurrently within a single process.

• Windows provides APIs like CreateThread and CreateProcess to create and manage threads.

• Threads share the same memory space within a process, allowing for efficient communication and resource sharing.

• Windows supports both user-mode and kernel-mode threads, with user-mode threads being more lightweight.

• Synchronization mechanism...read more

Memory mapping in Windows allows files to be mapped directly into memory for faster access and manipulation.

• Memory mapping allows files to be accessed as if they were in memory

• File mapping can be used for sharing data between processes

• Improves performance by reducing disk I/O operations

• Examples: CreateFileMapping, MapViewOfFile, UnmapViewOfFile

Critical section in Windows is a synchronization mechanism used to protect shared resources from concurrent access.

• Critical sections are used to ensure mutual exclusion between threads accessing shared resources.

• They are implemented using the Windows API functions InitializeCriticalSection, EnterCriticalSection, and LeaveCriticalSection.

• Critical sections are more efficient than mutexes for synchronization within a sing...read more