I applied through a recruiter.

2 phone interview coding problem

• Round 1: Chinese Professor At the start, he mentioned that the actual implementation wasn't the priority; the focus was on the problem-solving approach. The task was to guess a hidden number. While it clearly called for a Binary Search, there was a twist: the system doesn't give you feedback on your current guess immediately. Instead, it only provides the result of your previous guess. Essentially, it was a Delayed Binary Search.

• Round 2: Caucasian Male This was a very straightforward BFS (Breadth-First Search) problem.

I’m honestly not sure why I didn't pass. It’s possible I just wasn't a "team match," or perhaps there was a subtle optimization they were looking for.

Analysis & Thoughts

That first round is a classic "think-on-your-feet" brainteaser. In a Delayed Binary Search, you usually have to "waste" a move or manage two search intervals simultaneously because your $n$-th guess is informed by the $(n-1)$-th result. It tests how you handle state and asynchronous feedback.

Round 1: Chinese Professor

At the start, he mentioned that the actual implementation wasn't the priority; the focus was on the problem-solving approach. The task was to guess a hidden number. While it clearly called for a Binary Search, there was a twist: the system doesn't give you feedback on your current guess immediately. Instead, it only provides the result of your previous guess. Essentially, it was a Delayed Binary Search.

Round 2: Caucasian Male

This was a very straightforward BFS (Breadth-First Search) problem.

I’m honestly not sure why I didn't pass. It’s possible I just wasn't a "team match," or perhaps there was a subtle optimization they were looking for.

Analysis & Thoughts

That first round is a classic "think-on-your-feet" brainteaser. In a Delayed Binary Search, you usually have to "waste" a move or manage two search intervals simultaneously because your $n$-th guess is informed by the $(n-1)$-th result. It tests how you handle state and asynchronous feedback.