I applied for the Java Software Engineer position through their website and received an invitation for a CoderPad interview.

The interview featured a LeetCode-style question focused on string slicing using a hashmap. I found the question to be relatively easy.

I recommend thoroughly reviewing your basic Java concepts and HashMaps. I made the mistake of concentrating too much on my weaker areas, such as graphs and dynamic programming, and neglected to review the fundamentals first. As a result, I feel I didn't perform as well as I could have.

Don't overthink the problem; start with a brute force solution and discuss your thought process with your interviewer. Then, work on improving it into a more efficient solution. The interviewer was very helpful in guiding me through the process.

A list of strings from a log was provided. The task involved extracting IP addresses from these strings, storing them in a hashmap, and identifying the most frequently occurring queries. The interviewer would slightly modify the questions and update the scenario as you worked through the questions, requiring you to adapt your solution accordingly.