It wasn’t an interview; it was an assignment consisting of two coding questions.

First Question: It was similar to LeetCode Problem 56 (Merge Intervals). The input was an array of tuples, where each tuple contained a processId and the time required to run that process. The task was to determine which processId had the maximum total running time.

Second Question: The task was to count the maximum number of consecutive set bits (i.e., consecutive 1s) in a number. I don’t have much experience with bit manipulation, so this one was a bit challenging for me.

I solved both questions in about 40 minutes. However, I later found out that the role was intended for experienced candidates. Since I’m a recent graduate, I didn’t make it to the next round.

How was the difficulty of this assignment?