Case study: my mock interview as an interviewee on Oct. 31, 2019

Oct. 31, 2019

Introduction

I had a mock interview today at 10:00 PM, and I like to write case study of my mock interview. It is important for me to learn how to pass mock interview on interviewing.io.

Case study

The code I wrote for the first algorithm.

	using System;
	using System.Collections.Generic;
	// Give an array of string such as a = [orange, apple, lemon, pear, apple, orange, pear], targetWord = orange, k = 1
	// removeKElement(a, targetWord, k)
	// => k = 1 => [apple, lemon, pear, apple, orange, pear]
	// => k = 3 => [apple, lemon, pear, apple, pear] - remove first two orange
	// time complexity : O(N)
	// space: O(1)
	// keep the original order ->
	//
	// array = [orange, [apple, [pear,[orange,apple]]], [watermelon,[lemon,apple]]], targetWord, k = 2
	// => [ [apple, pear,[apple]], [watermelon, [lemon, apple]]]
	// To execute C#, please define "static void Main" on a class
	// named Solution.
	class Solution
	{
	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
	var result = removeTargetWordKtimes(new string[]{"orange","apple","apple","orange"}, "orange", 2);
	foreach(var item in result)
	Console.WriteLine(item);
	}
	/// [apple, lemon, pear, apple, orange, pear], target = "orange", K = 1
	public static string[] removeTargetWordKtimes(string[] words, string target, int K)
	{
	if(words == null || words.Length == 0 || K <= 0)
	return new string[0];
	if(target == null || target.Length == 0)
	return words;
	var length = words.Length;
	var list = new List<string>();
	for(int i = 0;i < length; i++)
	{
	var current = words[i]; // organge
	if(current.CompareTo(target) == 0 && K > 0)
	{
	K--;
	}
	else
	{
	list.Add(current);
	}
	}
	return list.ToArray();
	}
	}

view raw RemoveTargetWordKTimes.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Extended algorithm

	// array = [orange, [apple, [pear,[orange,apple]]], [watermelon,[lemon,apple]]], targetWord, k = 2
	// => [ [apple, pear,[apple]], [watermelon, [lemon, apple]]]
	//
	// class NestedArray {
	// List<NestedArray> array;
	// String value;
	//
	// public boolean isEmpty() { return array.isEmpty() }
	//
	// [ orange, [apple, [pear]]]
	/*
	[ array1 => size is 2
	orange, => string value is orange
	[ array2 => size is 2
	apple, => string value is apple
	[ array3 => size is 1
	pear => string value is pear
	]
	]
	]
	*/
	// To execute C#, please define "static void Main" on a class
	// named Solution.
	class Solution
	{
	public class Node
	{
	List<Node> items; // either it is Node or string
	public string value {get; set;}
	public bool isString {get; set;}
	//
	Node next; // left, right ->
	public Node()
	{
	node1 = new Node();
	node1.isString = true;
	node1.value = "orange";
	node1B = new Node();
	node1B.isString = true;
	node1B.value = "apple";
	node2 = new Node();
	node2.isString = false;
	node2.items = new List<Node>();
	node2.Add(node1B);
	node2.Add(); // skip -> it is list simlar to node
	node1.next = node2;
	// written by interviewer - start from here
	// [ orange, [apple, [pear]]]
	NestedArray A;
	NestedArray B => B.isString = true, B.value = "orange";
	NestedArray C => C.isString = false;
	NestedArray D => D.isString = true, D.value = "apple";
	NestedArray E => E.isString = true, E.value = "pear";
	NestedArray F => F.isString = false;
	F.arrays = [E];
	NestedArray G => G.arrays = [D, F];
	A.arrays = [B, G]
	// end of the code written by interviewer
	}
	// interviewer wrote the code in the following
	public void print(NestedArray a) {
	if (nestedArray.isString) {
	System.out.println(nestedArray.value);
	} else {
	System.out.println("[");
	for (NestedArray b : a.arrays) {
	print(b);
	}
	System.out.println("]");
	}
	}

view raw RemoveTargetWordFromNestedArray.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Interviewer feedback

Actionable Items

Follow up
Nov. 2, 2019

My ranking of interviewer does not match the feedback I wrote about the interviewer. I should lower the ranking of interviewer, at most 3. I have to learn how to make decision based on my careful consideration first.

Do not give the interviewer rank 4, which should be 2, not as good as 3.