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user@intervues:~/experiences/…$
Level: Senior-Level
Round: Phone Screen · Type: Coding · Difficulty: 6/10 · Duration: 60 min · Interviewer: Neutral
Topics: Greedy Algorithms
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Interview date: 2026-01-31
Got offer: False
The phone screen focused on a greedy algorithm problem and a discussion of basic algorithms and past experiences.
I had a phone screen in late January. The interviewer's nationality was not specified.
The coding question was: You are given a string S describing a street, in which 'H' denotes a house and '-' denotes an empty plot. You may place water tanks in empty plots to collect rainwater from nearby houses. A house can collect its own rainwater if there is a tank next to it (on either the left or the right side). Your task is to find the minimum number of water tanks needed to collect rainwater from all of the houses.
For example, given S = "-H-HH -- ", you can collect rainwater from all three houses by using two water tanks. You can position one water tank between the first and second houses and the other after the third house. This placement of water tanks can be represented as "-HTHHT-", where 'T' denotes a water tank.
This is a standard greedy problem and not too difficult, but I got stuck initially. After receiving a hint, I was able to solve it quickly. We then briefly discussed basic algorithms and my past experiences.