Upstox Software Developer Intern Interview Questions and Answers

Round duration - 90 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

Q1. 
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.
• Use Floyd's Cycle Detection Algorithm to determine if there is a cycle in the linked list.

• Maintain two pointers, one moving at double the speed of the other, if they meet at any point, there is a cycle.

• If one of the pointers reaches the end of the list (null), there is no cycle.
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Q2. 
Next Greater Element Problem Statement
Given a list of integers of size N, your task is to determine the Next Greater Element (NGE) for every element. The Next Greater Element for an element X is the firs...read more
Ans. 
Find the Next Greater Element for each element in a list of integers.
• Iterate through the list of integers from right to left.

• Use a stack to keep track of elements for which the Next Greater Element is not yet found.

• Pop elements from the stack until a greater element is found or the stack is empty.

• Assign the Next Greater Element as the top element of the stack or -1 if the stack is empty.
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Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

Q1. How would you design an ATM machine?
Ans. 
Designing an ATM machine involves considering user interface, security measures, transaction processing, and hardware components.
• User interface should be intuitive and easy to navigate for users of all ages.

• Implement security measures such as PIN entry, card authentication, and encryption to protect user data.

• Transaction processing should be fast and reliable, with options for cash withdrawals, deposits, transfers, and...read more
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Round duration - 45 Minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

Round duration - 65 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

It was 24 hours window for the online round from 8 Oct 10:30 am to 9 Oct 10:30 am. There were 7 MCQ problems related to c++, java, DBMS, and operating systems. And 2 coding problems with one easy and one moderate level difficulty for question, we were supposed to write the whole program but for other question, the function was to be written only. I was able to solve the first problem fully and the second 50%, you are required to pass test cases.

Q1. 
Minimum and Maximum Candy Cost Problem
Ram is in Ninjaland, visiting a unique candy store offering 'N' candies each with different costs. The store has a special offer: for every candy you purchase, you c...read more
Ans. 
Determine the minimum and maximum amounts of money needed to purchase all candies with a special offer.
• Iterate through the candy costs array to find the minimum and maximum costs.

• Consider the special offer of getting up to 'K' additional candies for free.

• Calculate the minimum cost by selecting the cheapest candies and taking free ones.

• Calculate the maximum cost by selecting the most expensive candies and taking free on
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Q2. 
Word Break Problem Statement
You are provided with a continuous non-empty string (referred to as 'sentence') which contains no spaces and a dictionary comprising a list of non-empty strings (known as 'wor...read more
Ans. 
Given a dictionary of words and a continuous string, generate all possible sentences by inserting spaces.
• Use recursion to generate all possible combinations of words from the dictionary to form sentences.

• Check if a substring of the sentence matches any word in the dictionary, if so, recursively call the function with the remaining substring.

• Keep track of the current sentence being formed and add it to the result when t...read more
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Round duration - 90 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

The interviewer asked me questions about projects, general discussion, and 3 coding questions based on linked list, arrays, and binary tree.
I gave optimum approach for every question.

Q1. 
Delete the Middle Node from a Singly Linked List
Given a singly linked list of integers, the task is to remove the middle node from this list.
Input:
The first line of input includes an integer 'T' whic...read more
Ans. 
Remove the middle node from a singly linked list of integers.
• Identify the middle node using slow and fast pointers technique.

• Update the pointers to remove the middle node.

• Handle cases where there are two middle nodes by removing the first one.

• Return NULL if no middle node exists.

• Achieve O(N) time and O(1) space complexity with a single traversal.
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Q2. 
Problem Statement
Given an integer array ARR of size N, replace each element of this array with its corresponding rank.
Explanation
The rank of an element is an integer between 1 and N (inclusive) that ...read more
Ans. 
Replace elements in an array with their corresponding ranks based on given rules.
• Iterate through the array and assign ranks based on the rules provided.

• Handle equal elements by assigning them the same rank.

• Return the modified array with elements replaced by their ranks.
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Q3. 
Left View of a Binary Tree Problem Statement
Given a binary tree, your task is to print the left view of the tree.
Example:
Input:
The input will be in level order form, with node values separated by a...read more
Ans. 
Print the left view of a binary tree given in level order form.
• Traverse the tree level by level and print the first node of each level

• Use a queue to keep track of nodes at each level

• Consider null nodes as well while traversing the tree
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Round duration - 90 minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

A 24 hour window was given to us and we can attempt the test anytime in between. It included 2 coding questions. One was easy-medium level and the other one was hard. Along with this 7 debugging MCQ's were given, however they were easy.

Q1. 
Minimum Steps for a Knight to Reach Target
Given a square chessboard of size 'N x N', determine the minimum number of moves a Knight requires to reach a specified target position from its initial position...read more
Ans. 
Calculate minimum steps for a Knight to reach target position on a chessboard.
• Use BFS algorithm to find the shortest path from Knight's starting position to target position.

• Consider all possible moves of the Knight on the chessboard.

• Keep track of visited positions to avoid revisiting them.

• Return the minimum number of moves required to reach the target position.
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Q2. 
Minimum and Maximum Candy Cost Problem
Ram is in Ninjaland, visiting a unique candy store offering 'N' candies each with different costs. The store has a special offer: for every candy you purchase, you c...read more
Ans. 
Determine the minimum and maximum amount of money needed to purchase all candies with a special offer.
• Iterate through the candy costs array to find the minimum and maximum costs.

• Consider the special offer to calculate the minimum and maximum costs.

• Keep track of the total cost and free candies obtained during the process.

• Return the minimum and maximum costs for each test case.
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Round duration - 50 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

The interview was conducted around 11am in the morning. The interviewer was professional and to the point while questioning. However he gave me hints whenever I got stuck anywhere.

Q1. 
Right View of Binary Tree
Given a binary tree of integers, your task is to output the right view of the tree.
The right view of a binary tree includes the nodes that are visible when the tree is observed...read more
Ans. 
The task is to output the right view of a binary tree, which includes the nodes visible when observed from the right.
• Perform a level order traversal of the binary tree.

• For each level, add the rightmost node to the result list.

• Print the result list as the right view of the binary tree.

• Handle null nodes by skipping them during traversal.
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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.
• Use Floyd's Tortoise and Hare algorithm to detect a cycle in the linked list.

• Initialize two pointers, slow and fast, and move them at different speeds through the list.

• If there is a cycle, the two pointers will eventually meet at some node.

• If one of the pointers reaches the end of the list (null), there is no cycle.
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Q3. Can you explain in detail about one of your projects?
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Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

Timing- In the evening around 5 pm
Environment- It was online test so I was in my room comfortable.

Q1. 
Best Time To Buy and Sell Stock Problem Statement
You are given an array 'PRICES' of 'N' integers, where 'PRICES[i]' represents the price of a certain stock on the i-th day. An integer 'K' is also provide...read more
Ans. 
Determine the maximum profit achievable with at most K transactions by buying and selling stocks.
• Iterate through the array and keep track of the minimum price to buy and maximum profit for each transaction.

• Use dynamic programming to store the maximum profit at each day with each possible number of transactions.

• Consider edge cases such as when K is 0 or when the array is empty.

• Example: For input N = 6, PRICES = [3, 2, 6
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Round duration - 60 minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

Timing - 2pm
Environment - my room
Interviewer was pretty chilled.

Q1. 
Stack with getMin Operation
Create a stack data structure that supports not only the usual push and pop operations but also getMin(), which retrieves the minimum element, all in O(1) time complexity witho...read more
Ans. 
Implement a stack with getMin operation in O(1) time complexity without using extra space.
• Use two stacks - one to store the actual elements and another to store the minimum values encountered so far.

• When pushing an element, check if it is smaller than the current minimum and if so, push it onto the minimum stack.

• When popping an element, check if it is the current minimum and if so, pop from the minimum stack as well.

• Fo...read more
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Q1. Why you want to switch
Ans. 
Seeking new challenges and growth opportunities in a different environment.
• Desire to work on new technologies and projects

• Opportunity for career advancement

• Seeking a better work-life balance

• Interested in a different company culture or team dynamic
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Q1. Same as posted in advice
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