After a casual phone interview with an onsite recruiter, I was invited for an onsite interview.

The interview panel consisted of:

• One VP
• One senior engineer
• One database specialist

The VP asked general architectural system design questions. These questions could have had vastly different correct answers depending on the specific nature of the system.

The senior engineer asked a question about finding a certain set of numbers from a list. I provided an O(N) solution, but they insisted that sorting the list would yield a faster result. However, no sorting algorithm can perform faster than O(N). I was tempted to correct them, but I remained silent.

The database specialist did not ask any difficult questions. This was probably because they knew I was not a database specialist.

Overall, I felt the interviewers seemed sub-par in their engineering skills and creativity.

One bridge, 4 people: A, B, C, D.

A takes 2 minutes to cross the bridge. B takes 4 minutes. C takes 8 minutes. D takes 16 minutes.

It is dark, and there is only 1 torch. Therefore, 2 people need to cross the bridge at the same time. One person must bring back the torch for the next group to cross the bridge. The group walks at the pace of the slower walker.

How can they cross the bridge in the fastest way?