Salesforce Software Developer Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Probability related question

Round duration - 75 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This was an online coding round where we had 2 questions to solve under 75 minutes. The questions were of Medium to Hard level of difficulty and I found the problem statements to be a bit tricky.

Q1. 
Balanced Parentheses Combinations
Given an integer N representing the number of pairs of parentheses, find all the possible combinations of balanced parentheses using the given number of pairs.
Explanati...read more
Ans. 
Generate all possible combinations of balanced parentheses for a given number of pairs.
• Use recursion to generate all possible combinations of balanced parentheses.

• Keep track of the number of open and close parentheses used in each combination.

• Terminate recursion when the number of open and close parentheses used equals the given number of pairs.
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Q2. 
Longest Happy String Problem Statement
Given three non-negative integers X, Y, and Z, determine the longest happy string. A happy string is defined as a string that contains only the letters 'a', 'b', and...read more
Ans. 
The problem involves constructing the longest happy string with given constraints on the frequency of 'a', 'b', and 'c'.
• Iterate through the characters 'a', 'b', 'c' in decreasing order of their frequencies

• Append the character with the highest frequency that does not create a substring of 3 same characters

• Repeat until all characters are used up or the string reaches the desired length
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Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round had 2 preety decent questions of DSA . The interviewer was also quite freindly and helpful. I was able to solve both the questions under the given time frame and also discussed their respective time and space complexites.

Q1. 
Problem Description
Given a graph with 'N' nodes and 'M' unidirectional edges, along with two integers 'S' and 'D' representing the source and destination respectively, your task is to find all possible p...read more
Ans. 
Find all possible paths from a source node to a destination node in a graph with unique nodes.
• Create a graph using the given nodes and edges

• Implement a depth-first search (DFS) algorithm to find all paths from source to destination

• Ensure that the nodes in the paths are unique and print them in lexicographically sorted order
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Q2. 
Cycle Detection in a Singly Linked List
Determine if a given singly linked list of integers forms a cycle or not.
A cycle in a linked list occurs when a node's next points back to a previous node in the ...read more
Ans. 
Detect if a singly linked list forms a cycle by checking if a node's next pointer points back to a previous node.
• Use Floyd's Tortoise and Hare algorithm to detect a cycle in O(N) time complexity and O(1) space complexity.

• Start with two pointers, slow and fast, moving at different speeds. If they meet at some point, there is a cycle.

• If the fast pointer reaches the end of the list (null), there is no cycle.

• Example: For i...read more
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Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round had 1 question related to BST followed by some standard questions from OOPS and Operating Systems.

Q1. 
Pair with Given Sum in a Balanced BST Problem Statement
You are given the ‘root’ of a Balanced Binary Search Tree and an integer ‘target’. Your task is to determine if there exists any pair of nodes such ...read more
Ans. 
Given a Balanced BST and a target integer, determine if there exists a pair of nodes with sum equal to the target.
• Traverse the BST in-order to get a sorted array of values.

• Use two pointers approach to find the pair with sum equal to target.

• Consider edge cases like negative numbers and duplicates.

• Time complexity should be O(n) and space complexity O(n).
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Q2. What is the difference between Early Binding and Late Binding in C++?
Ans. 
Early binding is resolved at compile time while late binding is resolved at runtime in C++.
• Early binding is also known as static binding, where the function call is resolved at compile time based on the type of the object.

• Late binding is also known as dynamic binding, where the function call is resolved at runtime based on the actual type of the object.

• Early binding is faster as the function call is directly linked dur...read more
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Q3. What is meant by multitasking and multithreading in operating systems?
Ans. 
Multitasking refers to the ability of an operating system to run multiple tasks concurrently, while multithreading involves executing multiple threads within a single process.
• Multitasking allows multiple processes to run simultaneously on a single processor, switching between them quickly.

• Multithreading enables a single process to execute multiple threads concurrently, improving performance and responsiveness.

• Multitask...read more
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Round duration - 30 Minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

This was my last round and I hoped it to go good just like the other rounds. The interviewer was very straight to point
and professional. The interview lasted for 30 minutes.

Q1. What is something about you that is not included in your resume?
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Round duration - 75 Minutes
Round difficulty - Hard

Online Round - 2 questions. 
75 minutes

Q1. 
Construct the Lexicographically Largest Valid Sequence
You are provided with a positive integer N. The goal is to generate the lexicographically largest sequence of length 2*N - 1, containing integers ran...read more
Ans. 
Generate lexicographically largest valid sequence of length 2*N - 1 with specific constraints.
• Start with the largest numbers and place them at the ends to maximize lexicographical order.

• Place the number 1 in the middle to satisfy the condition of appearing exactly once.

• Determine the positions of other numbers based on their distance requirements.

• Iterate through the sequence and fill in the numbers based on the constrai...read more
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Q2. 
Zuma Game Problem Statement
You have a string of balls on the table called BOARD and several balls in your hand represented by the string hand. The balls can be of the colors red(R), blue(B), green(G), wh...read more
Ans. 
Determine the minimum number of insertions required to empty the board in Zuma game problem.
• Check if it's possible to empty the board by trying all possible combinations of inserting balls from hand.

• Use backtracking algorithm to simulate the game and find the minimum number of insertions required.

• Handle edge cases like when the board cannot be emptied or when the hand is empty.

• Consider optimizing the algorithm by pruni...read more
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Round duration - 40 Minutes
Round difficulty - Hard

1 Coding problem and 1 OOP problem

Q1. 
Ninja and Chocolates Problem Statement
Ninja is hungry and wants to eat his favorite chocolates, but his mother won't let him because he has already eaten enough. There are 'N' jars filled with chocolates...read more
Ans. 
Find the minimum eating speed required for a ninja to consume all chocolates within a given time limit.
• Iterate through possible eating speeds to find the minimum speed that allows the ninja to consume all chocolates within the given time limit.

• Calculate the total number of chocolates to be consumed and divide it by the time limit to get the minimum eating speed.

• Handle cases where a jar has fewer chocolates than the eat...read more
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Q2. What is the difference between a virtual function and an abstract class in Object-Oriented Programming?
Ans. 
Virtual functions can be overridden in derived classes, while abstract classes cannot be instantiated directly.
• Virtual functions are declared using the 'virtual' keyword and can be overridden in derived classes.

• Abstract classes cannot be instantiated and may contain one or more pure virtual functions.

• An abstract class can have virtual functions, but a virtual function does not make a class abstract.

• Example: Shape is an...read more
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Round duration - 40 minutes
Round difficulty - Hard

Resume based problems, OOPs, DBMS, OS problems

Q1. Design a platform similar to LinkedIn. What are the key features and architecture you would implement?
Ans. 
Design a platform similar to LinkedIn with key features and architecture
• Key Features: user profiles, connections, job postings, messaging, news feed, groups

• Architecture: microservices, cloud storage, scalable database, AI for recommendations

• Security: encryption, secure authentication, data privacy controls

• User Experience: intuitive UI/UX, mobile app support, notifications

• Monetization: premium subscriptions, advertising
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Round duration - 15 Minutes
Round difficulty - Hard

Typical HR interview round. Short and crisp