The first round interview was timed for 45 minutes. The interviewer didn't waste any time and started straight with a DSA question after a small chat.

It was a DSA question that was a Dynamic Programming problem if solved with the most optimized solution. However, the brute-force approach, a recursive one, was encouraged by the interviewer. It was a little tricky to code.

The interviewer was friendly and helpful at every step, offering hints to guide the thinking process, which led to a good discussion.

One question about interpreting a string message from its concatenated and distorted form. A spy message interpretation problem: determining what it originally could be.