PolicyBazaar Senior Software Engineer Interview Questions and Answers for Experienced

Round duration - 60 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

Medium level competitive programming question. Interviewer looked for the approach and working code.

Q1. 
Time to Burn Tree Problem
You are given a binary tree consisting of 'N' unique nodes and a start node where the burning will commence. The task is to calculate the time in minutes required to completely b...read more
Ans. 
Calculate the time in minutes required to completely burn a binary tree starting from a given node.
• Perform a depth-first search (DFS) to calculate the time taken to burn the entire tree.

• Track the time taken to burn each node based on its distance from the starting node.

• Consider the maximum time taken among all nodes as the total time to burn the entire tree.
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Round duration - 40 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

Timing : Evening
Interviewer was frank. He checked for indepth knowledge of the subject.

Round duration - 60 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

Two coding questions were given in the first round to be solved in 60 minutes.

Q1. 
Rearrange Array Elements Problem Statement
Given an array A containing 'N' integers and an integer m, rearrange the elements of the array such that the differences between the array elements and m are sor...read more
Ans. 
Rearrange array elements based on their differences from a given integer.
• Calculate the differences between each element and the given integer.

• Sort the elements based on their differences while maintaining the original order for elements with the same difference.

• Implement a function to rearrange the array elements as per the given criteria.
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Q2. 
Print Nodes at Distance K from a Given Node
Given an arbitrary binary tree, a node of the tree, and an integer 'K', find all nodes that are at a distance K from the specified node, and return a list of th...read more
Ans. 
The task is to find all nodes in a binary tree that are at a distance K from a given node.
• Traverse the binary tree to find the given node

• From the given node, perform a depth-first search to find all nodes at distance K

• Use a list to store the values of the nodes at distance K

• Return the list of values in any order
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Round duration - 60 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

This was a technical round with questions based on DSA, DBMS, Computer Networking and project based questions.

Q1. 
Triangle of Numbers Pattern
Ninja is tasked with printing a triangle pattern based on a given number 'N' for any test case.
Example:
Input:
N = 4
Output:
   1
  232
 34545
4567654
Explanation:
The pat...read more
Ans. 
Print a triangle pattern of numbers based on a given number 'N'.
• Iterate through each row and print the numbers accordingly

• Use spaces to center-align the numbers in each row

• Increment the numbers in each row as per the pattern
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Q2. What is the difference between a web server and an application server?
Ans. 
Web server serves static content over HTTP, while application server runs dynamic content and business logic.
• Web server handles HTTP requests and responses, serving static content like HTML, images, and CSS.

• Application server executes business logic, runs dynamic content, and interacts with databases.

• Web server examples include Apache, Nginx, while application server examples include Tomcat, JBoss.

• Web server focuses on...read more
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Q3. How does the internet work?
Ans. 
The internet is a global network of interconnected computers that communicate using standardized protocols.
• The internet is made up of a vast number of interconnected networks of computers.

• Data is transmitted over the internet using protocols such as TCP/IP.

• Websites are hosted on servers connected to the internet, and users access them using web browsers.

• Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide access to the internet f...read more
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Q4. Write a SQL query to find the nth highest salary.
Ans. 
SQL query to find the nth highest salary
• Use the 'SELECT DISTINCT' statement to get unique salary values

• Order the salaries in descending order using 'ORDER BY' clause

• Use 'LIMIT' and 'OFFSET' to get the nth highest salary
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Round duration - 30 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

Typical HR round with behavioral problems.

Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round was purely based on Data Structures and Algorithms . One has to be fairly comfortable in solving Algorithmic problems to pass this round . Both the questions asked were quite common and luckily I had already prepared them from CodeStudio and LeetCode.

Q1. 
Binary Tree Traversals Problem Statement
Given a Binary Tree with 'N' nodes, where each node holds an integer value, your task is to compute the In-Order, Pre-Order, and Post-Order traversals of the binar...read more
Ans. 
Compute the In-Order, Pre-Order, and Post-Order traversals of a Binary Tree given in level-order format.
• Implement functions to perform In-Order, Pre-Order, and Post-Order traversals of a Binary Tree.

• Use level-order input to construct the Binary Tree.

• Traverse the Binary Tree recursively to generate the required traversals.

• Ensure proper handling of null nodes represented by -1 in the input.

• Return the three traversals as ...read more
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Q2. 
Reverse Linked List Problem Statement
Given a Singly Linked List of integers, your task is to reverse the Linked List by altering the links between the nodes.
Input:
The first line of input is an intege...read more
Ans. 
Reverse a singly linked list by altering the links between nodes.
• Iterate through the linked list and reverse the links between nodes

• Use three pointers to keep track of the current, previous, and next nodes

• Update the links between nodes to reverse the list

• Return the head of the reversed linked list
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Round duration - 45 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round basically tested some concepts from Data Structures and File Manipulation .

Q1. 
Intersection of Two Arrays Problem Statement
Given two arrays A and B with sizes N and M respectively, both sorted in non-decreasing order, determine their intersection.
The intersection of two arrays in...read more
Ans. 
The problem involves finding the intersection of two sorted arrays efficiently.
• Use two pointers to iterate through both arrays simultaneously.

• Compare elements at the pointers and move the pointers accordingly.

• Handle cases where elements are equal and update the intersection array.

• Return the intersection array as the result.
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