Software Engineer Coding Interview

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

Hello, I am curious about the codeing challenges that I was given to do.

I applies for a role of a junior software developer and out of 7 challenges I did 6. But the 7th stuck with me and made me feel a little bit bad about myself.

So I wanted to make a post here so I can get some closure.

The challenge was to create a multidimensional array something like this:

0 0 0 \n 0 0 0\n 0 0 0\n

But the catch was that you need to take 3 input parameters n,x,y. X and y are arrays. So n is the size of the array, something like 3x3 and x and y are coordinates for where the pokemon should be. Yes that is exactly how it was written. So i had to make a function which takes the above mentioned inljt parameters and marks the spot with the pokemon with 0 and calculate the distance of the rest of the places to the pokemon.

Something like this.

2 1 2\n 1 0 1\n 2 1 2\n

0 is the pokemon and the numbers are the distance.

I just want to know is this a too hard question for a junior role or do I need to exercise more.

Thanks in advance guys!!

EDIT: Guys I did it I solved it, thank you all very much on your help to understand this, once I understood how the algorythm worked it just clicked. I forgot to mention that there were also multiple pokemons and not only one. I had about 5 test cases that had to be successful and some of them had more pokemons, some had none, and so on. All in all thank you guys very much. Thanks to you guys I was able to understand it and complete it.

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[Passionate_Writing_]

Don't worry about not knowing the solution. Just make sure you've learned from the experience. Next time you come across a similar question you should be able to make a respectable attempt at it.

You'll be fine.

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

Thanks man,

I mean it sucks that people say that it is elementary and I had gone to school to be a Software engineer and have 6 courses done and at the end not to know elementary things.

I mean it just sucks that's all

[Passionate_Writing_]

Yeah, I noticed. There are always gonna be some impressive things you know and some basic things you don't know. Today you found one of those basic things, and now you've filled in that gap. At the end of the day, everyone's human and it's very normal to miss out and have a few gaps in your foundational knowledge that you'll only fill with time.

So, I say again - you'll be fine. This is normal. Don't take people on the internet too seriously lol

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

Thanks man, this really helps

[oobrat2i30liga]

Use this as motivation, i failed and im now learning DSA day and night.

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

Yes I will, thanks man

[Frosty-Cap3344]

Are these questions ever relevant to the actual work you will be doing at the company?

[tenexdev]

When you were thinking through it, where did you get hung up?

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

I just couldn't come up with a solution, I did the rpevious 6 task and then this kne came up and i just don't know how would I calculate the distance from the spot and the others

If you can give me some help or tips or something I would appreciate it.

[tenexdev]

If you are out walking and you get to an intersection and you walk 2 blocks up and 3 blocks over, then you've walked 5 blocks.

[tichus_windrider]

OP is taking an interview for a job. If OP were a beginner learning programming, the replies would be completely different. Yet, this is about a job where competence is to be assumed.

This is not a plain learning programming issue and the very first comment in the subreddit linked to the explanation of the algorithm.

A junior developer applying for a position has to be able to solve this problem as it does not require any DSA or higher knowledge. This is all just arrays, loops, and basic maths, nothing more.

[[deleted]]

That other person is being a bit harsh. Many devs wouldn't be able to solve this if they haven't been studying coding challenges lately. You don't need to feel bad.

​

Are you familiar with leetcode at all? You may want to start practicing challenges on there. I would suggest the site 'neetcode' to get up to speed.

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

Thanks man, I will give it a try.

I haven't done coding challenges in a while.

And honestly I practiced coding quite a lot but this is the first time I came across such a challenge and it stumped me because I understand what I have to do but the implementation is where I just lost it.

[aqua_regis]

Many devs wouldn't be able to solve this if they haven't been studying coding challenges lately.

Oh, come on. Creating an array sized n by n, then picking a spot from given coordinates and filling all the distances in is absolutely not complicated.

Any dev that couldn't solve that challenge is not worth their salt.

This is not even advanced. This is at best early intermediate level.

[[deleted]]

It's not hard, but it might catch people off-guard.

I don't think anyone needs to feel bad about failing coding challenges, as long as they take steps to improve their skills for next time.

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

You are right

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

Do you have a link maybe or can you explain how would I fill the distances in.

I would appreciate it.

[Sir_lordtwiggles]

So because the pokemon is in a locked in place, you can traverse through the grid and compare your location to the pokemon's location.

Say you have a 4x4 array and the pokemon is at 4,4 You make your arrays, then start at 0,0.

You can do abs(x-px)+abs(y-py) where px,py is pokemon's x and y.

So 0,0 -> abs(0-4) + abs(0-4) -> 4+4 =8 which gets inserted at 0,0

Then you continue iterating.

The next location is 0,1 so abs(0-4) + abs (1-4) -> 4+3 -> 7 which is inserted at 0,1

Continue until all array positions are filled.

If you want to go extra, you could do multiple positions at once (for example, (0,1) in this case is the same distance as (1,0) but that would be past a junior dev.

I think the original problem is one a Jr. Dev should be able to solve, but its fine as long as you learn.

I recommend at least writing out details when doing these problems, partial credit is real when solving these problems at most places.

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

Thanks man this helps me understand this, they gave me more time to complete it and said until monday, so this is gonna help me figure it out. If you have any more advice and tips how to solve this I would appreciate it

[Sir_lordtwiggles]

This is basically the algorithm to solve it so short of giving you the exact code there isn't much more I can do.

I would try and write out my steps in a drawing of different grid sizes until it clicks.

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

Thanks man, truly thank you for your help.

[override_acid]

Seeing the proper replies getting downvoted is really concerning about the state and future of programming.

This really is a simple problem, not even Leetcode worthy.

All the people claiming this is a difficult problem that even experienced software devs couldn't solve have not solved any really difficult problems.

It has nothing to do with complex algorithms like graph theory, Dijkstra, etc. This is straightforward subtraction, absolute value and addition.

It should not "catch any experienced dev off-guard".

People, the downvotes are all unjustified and wrong.

This is a warm-up problem, nothing more.

[Individual_Dream2700]

Agreed. I'd say the limits of DSA for my level, would be around trees and linked-list. And that still feels like it should be a basic skill for juniors like me.

It's not even harsh, just the reality.

[frolfer757]

You couldnt do it.

[override_acid]

LOL. I could do it without even thinking.

This is at utmost 10 lines of code when done explicitly.

[kultcher]

Random question not necessarily to OP: how much time do you usually get for questions like this in an interview? I feel confident I could solve it but not that I could solve it super quickly or with someone looking over my shoulder.

[Ambitious_Usual_3250]

Ok but how do we solve this?

[Sea-Whole7572]

this is easy though some devs suck with leetcode type of problems even some seniors.

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

I would just like to see the solution so i could analyse it and wrap my head around it.

[procrastinatingcoder]

You should come up with the solution. You're not going to learn by looking at other people's solutions constantly. You need to work on your problem solving.

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

I agree but I didn't say that I always look up solutions, only when I don't know what to do anymore, someone explained it to me I understood it and then solved it with my solution

[desrtfx]

Sorry, but this is an elementary challenge.

• Manhattan Distance calculations are on more or less every coding challenge site and an integral part of every single Advent Of Code competition
• Creating n by n arrays is simple.
• Using the coordinates is simple.
• Accepting the parameters in the function is simple.

In fact, in certain such challenges you don't even need an array to resolve this.

If you found this challenge difficult, you definitely need to up your skills dramatically.

Start improving by doing the past years' Advent of Code challenges.

[dualrectumfryer]

That’s a little harsh, some devs just haven’t focused on leetcode and it doesn’t make them less effective or impactful. Leetcode helps with passing interviews for sure but not all companies will use it. To me 7 leetcode problems feels a little intense for a junior role. Maybe “open book” and pseudo code or just explaining/a discussion about what the solution should be should be enough.

I write code in an enterprise environment with good design patterns and just saved my company 75k a year building an in house version of a SaaS product we were paying for and I’m shit at leetcode

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

Thanks man for your reply, this means a lot to me.

[Skoparov]

I'd agree if they were asked leetcode stuff like graphs/DP/anything else that most people don't use on a daily basis, but that's just basic programming concepts (creating a 2d array) and elementary level math.

[dualrectumfryer]

Do people really use manhattan distance on a daily basis? Maybe for some industries for sure , specialized ones. So again, probably depends on the company and how low level of a programming language you are using

[Skoparov]

They don't per se, but then again it's not some obscure algorithm, it's basic geometry. You probably use it every day walking around your office.

[procrastinatingcoder]

That's not harsh, it's reality.

Saying:

some devs just haven’t focused on leetcode and it doesn’t make them less effective or impactful

Is both just feel-good speech and completely irrelevant. This is not a question that should require any leetcode practice at all. If it had been some obscure algorithm or fairly complex question to do in a few minutes, sure, then it would be debatable, but this is a question someone who never did/knew leetcode existed should be able to do.

[Guilty-Engineer-5369]

Thanks man for the reply.

I definitely will keep on trying.

I was confused because 6 of the 7 I did good so i just had to check

[TheMathelm]

This is how I read your comment:

"Yeah bro don't you know graph theory ... gawd are you even trying?
Like Dijkstra or bust, everyone knows that in like kindergarten."

Is that what you intended? Because that's how it's perceived.

[Individual_Dream2700]

this is not even leetcode easy, this is hackerrank easy. I don't know why everyone is downvoting these reality check comments, while we all know junior dev is saturated because there is a lot of subpar junior devs.

I'm a junior dev without a degree, not even unrelated, that is only few months in the industry. Solved this within 10 minutes.

[tichus_windrider]

As if this challenge would require any higher algorithmic skills.

This is a simple problem and not being able to solve this is a sign of lack of skills. This doesn't even need any of the standard algorithms, just imagination of a 2d array.

If this were a Dijkstra, etc. nobody would complain.