Tata CLiQ Software Developer Interview Questions and Answers

Round duration - 60 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

It comprised of general aptitude questions and two coding questions. It was an offline test.

Q1. 
N Queens Problem
Given an integer N, find all possible placements of N queens on an N x N chessboard such that no two queens threaten each other.
Explanation:
A queen can attack another queen if they ar...read more
Ans. 
The N Queens Problem involves finding all possible placements of N queens on an N x N chessboard where no two queens threaten each other.
• Use backtracking algorithm to explore all possible configurations.

• Keep track of rows, columns, and diagonals to ensure queens do not attack each other.

• Generate and print valid configurations where queens are placed safely.

• Consider constraints and time limit for efficient solution.

• Exam...read more
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Q2. 
Sort 0 1 2 Problem Statement
Given an integer array arr of size 'N' containing only 0s, 1s, and 2s, write an algorithm to sort the array.
Input:
The first line contains an integer 'T' representing the n...read more
Ans. 
Sort an integer array containing only 0s, 1s, and 2s in linear time complexity.
• Use three pointers to keep track of the positions of 0s, 1s, and 2s in the array.

• Iterate through the array and swap elements based on the values encountered.

• Achieve sorting in a single scan over the array without using any extra space.
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Round duration - 60 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

After having a technical discussion about my CV. He gave me two questions to code.

Q1. 
Ninja and Substrings Problem Statement
Ninja has to determine all the distinct substrings of size two that can be formed from a given string 'STR' comprising only lowercase alphabetic characters. These su...read more
Ans. 
Find all unique contiguous substrings of size two from a given string.
• Iterate through the string and extract substrings of size two

• Use a set to store unique substrings

• Return the set as an array of strings
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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 points back to a previous node.
• Traverse the linked list using two pointers, one moving one step at a time and the other moving two steps at a time.

• If the two pointers meet at any point, there is a cycle in the linked list.

• If one of the pointers reaches the end of the list (null), there is no cycle.
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Round duration - 30 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

This was supposed to be the HR round but out of surprise the interviewer started by giving me a question to code. 
After I approached this question with the right solution he just asked about my family. After that he said to wait. After half an hour the results were announced. A total of three students were hired and I was amongst one of them.

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.

• Return the valid combinations as an array of strings.
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Round duration - 90 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round had 3 coding questions of Medium to Hard level of difficulty.

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.

• Return the valid combinations as an array of strings.
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Q2. 
Trapping Rain Water Problem Statement
You are given a long type array/list ARR of size N, representing an elevation map. The value ARR[i] denotes the elevation of the ith bar. Your task is to determine th...read more
Ans. 
Calculate the total amount of rainwater that can be trapped between given elevations in an array.
• Iterate through the array and calculate the maximum height on the left and right of each bar.

• Calculate the amount of water that can be trapped at each bar by taking the minimum of the maximum heights on the left and right.

• Sum up the trapped water at each bar to get the total trapped water for the entire array.
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Q3. 
Rotting Oranges Problem Statement
You are given a grid containing oranges where each cell of the grid can contain one of the three integer values:
• 0 - representing an empty cell
• 1 - representing a fre...read more
Ans. 
Find the minimum time required to rot all fresh oranges adjacent to rotten oranges.
• Create a queue to store the coordinates of rotten oranges and perform BFS to rot adjacent fresh oranges.

• Track the time taken to rot all fresh oranges and return -1 if not all fresh oranges can be rotten.

• Update the grid with the new state of oranges after each second.

• Handle edge cases such as empty grid or no fresh oranges present.

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

This was a standard DS/Algo round where I was given 2 questions to solve under 60 minutes. I was able to come up with the optimal approach for both the questions and then at the end of the interview I was also asked the famous Die Hard Water Puzzle.

Q1. 
Queue Using Stacks Implementation
Design a queue data structure following the FIFO (First In First Out) principle using only stack instances.
Explanation:
Your task is to complete predefined functions t...read more
Ans. 
Implement a queue using stacks following FIFO principle.
• Use two stacks to simulate a queue.

• For enQueue operation, push elements onto stack1.

• For deQueue operation, if stack2 is empty, pop all elements from stack1 and push onto stack2, then pop from stack2.

• For peek operation, if stack2 is empty, pop all elements from stack1 and push onto stack2, then return top of stack2.

• For isEmpty operation, check if both stack1 and st...read more
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Q2. 
Merge Intervals Problem Statement
You are provided with 'N' intervals, each containing two integers denoting the start time and end time of the interval.
Your task is to merge all overlapping intervals a...read more
Ans. 
Merge overlapping intervals and return sorted list of merged intervals by start time.
• Sort the intervals based on start time.

• Iterate through intervals and merge overlapping ones.

• Return the merged intervals in sorted order.
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Q3. You have a 3-liter jar and a 5-liter jar. How can you measure exactly 4 liters using these two jars?
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Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round had 2 coding questions - first one related to Binary Tree and the second one was a simple question from Bit Manipulation. This was followed by some questions from OOPS.

Q1. 
Binary Tree Diameter Problem Statement
You are given a Binary Tree, and you need to determine the length of the diameter of the tree.
The diameter of a binary tree is the length of the longest path betwe...read more
Ans. 
The task is to find the diameter of a binary tree, which is the length of the longest path between any two end nodes in the tree.
• Traverse the tree to find the longest path between two nodes.

• Keep track of the maximum diameter found during traversal.

• The diameter may not necessarily pass through the root node.

• Consider both left and right subtrees while calculating the diameter.

• Example: For input 1 2 3 4 -1 5 6 -1 7 -1 -1 ...read more
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Q2. 
Power of 2 Problem Statement
Determine if it is possible to reorder the digits of a given integer 'N' such that the resulting number is a power of two. The leading digit must not be zero.
Input:
The fir...read more
Ans. 
The problem involves determining if it is possible to reorder the digits of a given integer to form a power of 2.
• Iterate through all possible permutations of the digits of the given integer.

• Check if any of the permutations form a power of 2.

• Return 1 if a valid permutation is found, else return 0.
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Q3. What are some advantages of using Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)?
Ans. 
Advantages of OOP include code reusability, modularity, and easier maintenance.
• Code reusability: Objects can be reused in different parts of the program, reducing redundancy.

• Modularity: OOP allows for breaking down complex problems into smaller, more manageable parts.

• Easier maintenance: Changes to one part of the codebase do not necessarily affect other parts, making maintenance easier.

• Encapsulation: Data hiding and ab...read more
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Q4. What are access specifiers and what is their significance in Object-Oriented Programming?
Ans. 
Access specifiers define the level of access to class members in Object-Oriented Programming.
• Access specifiers include public, private, protected, and default

• Public members are accessible from outside the class

• Private members are only accessible within the class

• Protected members are accessible within the class and its subclasses

• Default access is when no access specifier is specified
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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. Why should we hire you?
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Coding test based on Binary trees, String Manipulation

Q1. Build an sample app server with express.js
Ans. 
Build a sample app server using express.js
• Install express.js using npm

• Create a new express app

• Set up routes and middleware

• Start the server to listen on a specific port
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Q2. How do you make connection with database in your project
Ans. 
I use JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) to establish connection with the database in my project.
• Use JDBC API to connect to the database

• Load the JDBC driver

• Create a connection object

• Create a statement object

• Execute SQL queries
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Q3. Write multer middleware code.
Ans. 
Multer is a middleware for handling multipart/form-data, used for file uploads in Node.js.
• Install multer package using npm: npm install multer

• Require multer in your Node.js file: const multer = require('multer')

• Set up multer middleware with desired options: const upload = multer({ dest: 'uploads/' })

• Use the upload middleware in your route handler to process file uploads
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