I applied online and was contacted by the recruiter. The technical screen was scheduled for the following week. I was invited to a code-sharing session on HackerRank. I solved the problems and walked through the test cases.

The following week, the recruiter contacted me again, stating that while I was able to solve the question, I did not explain my thought process. I was then invited for a second technical interview, where I solved the coding question but mentioned an incorrect time complexity.

After not hearing back from the recruiter, I emailed them after 4-5 working days. The recruiter called back, informing me that the team would not be moving forward. However, they encouraged me to apply for similar positions at Zillow, suggesting I might be a good fit for other teams.

Throughout the process, I felt the recruiter wasn't particularly engaged, as I was the one initiating follow-ups and inquiring about scheduling interviews earlier.

After briefly going over experience, we jumped into the coding exercise.

N friends are represented by (x, y, z). Which friend should host the party so that the overall distance is least?

1. Parenthesis matching