Uber phone screen
Just got news I failed an Uber phone screen for a senior dev position. This one really threw me off since it was a tougher problem (probably LC hard), and I got to a working solution at the end that compiled and passed the couple example cases he gave at the at start. Problem: you’re given a list of bus routes (each route is represented as a list of stations, so you have a list of list of integers). Find the least number of route changes to get from station a to station b. (Two routes may have the same station, which is a transfer point). I believe the trick here was to build the graph such that each route is a node instead of each station (which he hinted at, when I initially thought about modeling each station as a node). I just can’t fathom not giving someone an on-site when they produce working code for a question like this. What gives? Was it not good enough that he had to give me a hint (even though my initial solution would have worked, but not been optimal)? Could their tanking IPO have played a part here?
This question is on leetcode. I think its called “bus routes”.
It’s equally important HOW you arrived to so called ‘working solution’ and whether or not you were able to see flaws and ways to improve. Hard to tell how fairly you were judged without being on the other side. Keep in mind that things that interviewer is looking at might be different from what you think is important.
Anytime someone uses the word “path” you should shout graph in your head and if someone says “shortest path” you should immediately think Dijikstra or DFS. I don’t think you’re not competent, but since that question is such a well known question, I’m sure someone else killed it and they went with them
You thinking the tanking IPO is why you didn’t get an on site is probably a pretty good explanation of why you didn’t get an on site
If the hint that the interviewer provided you was the key to solving problem, it's very likely that was the reason they rejected you. But again that's my guess. Uber is well known for asking LC hard in phone interviews. Usually it helps to go through Uber tagged hard questions on LC.
or other candidates did better than you. (need a more subtle hint, explained things better... etc)