Porter In

Role: SDE Intern

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: Not Specified (Published Oct 21, 2024)

Interview Type: Internship

Result: Not Specified

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 2 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms, Object-Oriented Programming, Web Development Fundamentals, Database

Experience:

The candidate interviewed for a Software Development Engineer (SDE) intern role at Porter. The process was described as challenging yet insightful, covering DSA, OOP, and web development fundamentals.

Round 1: Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA)
The round began with a self-introduction, where the interviewer asked the candidate to elaborate on collaborative skills. The technical part included two DSA questions.
Question 1: Given an array and a range (x, y), find the number of pairs whose sum lies within this range. The candidate initially provided a brute-force solution and then optimized it using binary search and methods to eliminate duplicate pairs, which the interviewer appreciated.
Question 2: Given an even-sized linked list, find the maximum pair sum, where each pair consists of the ith node and the (n-i-1)th node in the list. The optimal solution involved finding the middle, reversing the second half, and traversing both halves simultaneously. The interviewer seemed satisfied. At the end, the candidate asked about Porter's work culture and received positive feedback on communication skills.

Round 2: Object-Oriented Programming and Web Development
This round started with a relaxed conversation about hobbies before moving to technical questions based on the resume. Questions included: "Why are recursive calls stored in a stack?", "In a bank, should requests be accessed via a stack or queue?", and a real-time example of polymorphism. Web development questions included "What is a media query?". Database questions were "What is normalization?" and a scenario about updating a book table with multiple authors and an author table with multiple books in a library system. The round concluded with a discussion about Porter and an opportunity for the candidate to ask questions. Overall, the interview was a great learning experience.