SA Technologies Associate Consultant Interview Questions and Answers

Round duration - 75 min
Round difficulty - Medium

This round was MCQ and coding round. 25 MCQs and one coding question were asked. MCQs were based on OS, DBMS, Aptitude and Data Structures.

Q1. 
Minimum Days to Complete Work
You have 'N' tasks to complete. Each task can only be done on one of two specific days provided in two arrays: day1 and day2.
For each task i, day1[i] represents the earliest...read more
Ans. 
Find the minimum number of days required to complete all tasks given specific completion days for each task.
• Sort the tasks based on day1 in ascending order.

• For each task, choose the minimum of day1 and day2 as the completion day.

• Keep track of the maximum completion day for each task.

• The final answer is the maximum completion day of all tasks.
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Round duration - 30 min
Round difficulty - Easy

This was a Data Structural round. Only one coding question was asked by the interviewer. The interviewer was very friendly. This round was very easy.

Q1. 
Bubble Sort Problem Statement
Sort the given unsorted array consisting of N non-negative integers in non-decreasing order using the Bubble Sort algorithm.
Input:
The first line contains an integer 'T' r...read more
Ans. 
Bubble Sort algorithm is used to sort an array of non-negative integers in non-decreasing order.
• Implement the Bubble Sort algorithm to sort the array in place.

• Compare adjacent elements and swap them if they are in the wrong order.

• Repeat this process until the array is sorted.

• Time complexity of Bubble Sort is O(n^2) in the worst case.

• Example: For input [6, 2, 8, 4, 10], the output should be [2, 4, 6, 8, 10].
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Round duration - 75 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

It was in the evening.
It consisted of 26 questions of easy to hard level.
It consisted of 25 MCQs and only 1 coding problem.

Q1. 
Author and Books Formatting
Given a structured list of books and their authors, format the information as specified.
Input:
The first line of input contains an integer ‘T' representing the number of tes...read more
Ans. 
The task is to format a list of authors and their books in a specific way as per the given input format.
• Parse the input to extract the number of test cases, number of authors, author names, and their respective books.

• Format the output by printing the author names and their books in the specified format.

• Ensure correct sequence and labeling of authors and books as per the example provided.

• Handle multiple test cases and a...read more
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Round duration - 15 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

It was more of CV based round. A brief discussion on projects was there followed by some questions like why optum.

Q1. 
Delete a Node from a Linked List
You are provided with a linked list of integers. Your task is to implement a function that deletes a node located at a specified position 'POS'.
Input:
The first line co...read more
Ans. 
Implement a function to delete a node from a linked list at a specified position.
• Traverse the linked list to find the node at the specified position.

• Update the pointers of the previous and next nodes to skip the node to be deleted.

• Handle edge cases such as deleting the head or tail of the linked list.

• Ensure to free the memory of the deleted node to avoid memory leaks.
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Round duration - 15 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

A short round where some basic dbms questions like procedure, cursor were asked. Then some questions on whether I would prefer working alone or in a team. Where I see myself in 5 years.

Q1. 
Graph Coloring Problem
You are given a graph with 'N' vertices numbered from '1' to 'N' and 'M' edges. Your task is to color this graph using two colors, such as blue and red, in a way that no two adjacen...read more
Ans. 
Given a graph with 'N' vertices and 'M' edges, determine if it can be colored using two colors without adjacent vertices sharing the same color.
• Use graph coloring algorithm like BFS or DFS to check if the graph can be colored with two colors without conflicts.

• Check if any adjacent vertices have the same color. If so, it is not possible to color the graph as described.

• If the graph has connected components, color each co...read more
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Round duration - 90 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

Test was active from 28th September 8 PM till 2 AM (29th September’20). We could attempt at any time. 
1.5 Hr Duration
Two coding questions.

Q1. 
Cycle Detection in Undirected Graph Problem Statement
You are provided with an undirected graph containing 'N' vertices and 'M' edges. The vertices are numbered from 1 to 'N'. Your objective is to determi...read more
Ans. 
Detect cycles in an undirected graph.
• Use Depth First Search (DFS) to detect cycles in the graph.

• Maintain a visited array to keep track of visited vertices.

• If a visited vertex is encountered again during DFS, a cycle exists.

• Check for cycles in each connected component of the graph.

• Consider edge cases like disconnected graphs and self-loops.
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Q2. 
Number of Islands Problem Statement
You are provided with a 2-dimensional matrix having N rows and M columns, containing only 1s (land) and 0s (water). Your goal is to determine the number of islands in t...read more
Ans. 
Count the number of islands in a 2D matrix of 1s and 0s.
• Use depth-first search (DFS) to traverse the matrix and identify connected groups of 1s.

• Maintain a visited array to keep track of visited cells to avoid redundant traversal.

• Increment the island count each time a new island is encountered.

• Consider all eight possible directions for connectivity while traversing the matrix.

• Handle edge cases such as out-of-bounds indi...read more
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Round duration - 60 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

Online video call round on Microsoft Teams
Interviewer was very friendly.
This round is often called Domain Discussion Round.

Q1. 
Longest Repeating Substring Problem Statement
Given a string str consisting of lowercase English alphabet letters, and an integer K, you are allowed to perform at most K operations on this string. An oper...read more
Ans. 
Find the length of the longest substring consisting of repeating characters after performing K operations.
• Iterate through the string and maintain a sliding window of characters.

• Keep track of the frequency of characters in the window.

• Update the window by changing characters to maximize the length of repeating substring.

• Return the length of the longest repeating substring obtained.
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Round duration - 60 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

One hour HR round.
Also called Core Values Interview.
The Interviewer was a senior level employee and was very friendly.

Round duration - 60 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

Q1. Can you explain Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)?
Ans. 
BJTs are three-terminal semiconductor devices used for amplification and switching of electronic signals.
• BJTs have three regions - emitter, base, and collector.

• They can be NPN or PNP type, depending on the arrangement of semiconductor materials.

• BJTs are current-controlled devices, where a small current at the base terminal controls a much larger current between the collector and emitter.

• Common BJT examples include 2N22...read more
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Q2. 
Graph Coloring Problem
You are given a graph with 'N' vertices numbered from '1' to 'N' and 'M' edges. Your task is to color this graph using two colors, such as blue and red, in a way that no two adjacen...read more
Ans. 
Graph coloring problem where vertices need to be colored with two colors such that no adjacent vertices share the same color.
• Check if the graph can be colored using two colors without any adjacent vertices sharing the same color.

• Use graph coloring algorithms like Greedy Coloring or Backtracking to solve the problem.

• If there are odd-length cycles in the graph, it is not possible to color the graph with two colors.

• If the...read more
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Round duration - 30 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

Q1. Can you explain in detail about Stacks and Graphs?
Ans. 
Stacks are data structures that follow the Last In First Out (LIFO) principle, while Graphs are data structures that consist of nodes and edges to represent relationships.
• Stacks are used for implementing functions, backtracking, and expression evaluation.

• Graphs are used for representing networks, social connections, and shortest path algorithms.

• Stacks can be implemented using arrays or linked lists.

• Graphs can be direct...read more
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Q2. 
Rat in a Maze: All Paths Problem
You are provided with an N * N maze where a rat is positioned at starting cell MAZE[0][0]. The goal is to determine and print all possible paths that the rat can take to r...read more
Ans. 
Find all possible paths for a rat in a maze from start to finish.
• Use backtracking to explore all possible paths in the maze.

• At each cell, check if it is a valid move and mark it as part of the path.

• Explore all four directions (up, down, left, right) recursively.

• When reaching the destination cell, add the path to the result.

• Return all valid paths found in the maze.
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Round duration - 50 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

first round was aptitude round + coding round.

Q1. 
Ninja Competition Problem Statement
Ninja is organizing a coding competition where two teams compete at a time. To keep it fair and interesting, both teams must have an equal number of members. Ninja’s ta...read more
Ans. 
Given an integer N, determine if two teams with equal members can be formed based on the divisors of N.
• Iterate through all divisors of N and assign members to two teams based on whether the divisor is even or odd.

• Keep track of the number of members in each team and check if they are equal at the end.

• Return true if the number of members in both teams is equal, false otherwise.
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