Microsoft

## Question 1: Alternating Server States Concepts:** Sliding Window, State Tracking Problem Statement:** You are given a binary string `s` representing the current operational states of a row of servers, where `'1'` means active and `'0'` means inactive. A server cluster operates optimally if its states strictly alternate (e.g., `"010101"` or `"1010"`). You are given an integer `budget`. You can flip a server's state (from `'0'` to `'1'` or vice versa) at a cost of `1` per flip. Return the maximum length of a contiguous sequence of alternating server states you can create without exceeding the `budget`. ## Question 2: Balanced Team Formation Concepts:** Two Pointers (Sliding Window), Monotonic Deque Problem Statement:** You are given two arrays of integers of length `n`: `skills` and `motivation`. You need to form a team by selecting a contiguous subarray of members. A team is considered *valid* if the absolute difference between the maximum skill and minimum skill of the members in the team is at most `k`. All elements in `motivation` are strictly positive. Return the maximum possible sum of `motivation` for a valid team.