Chariot·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen
Jun 2026
Interviewed for a software engineering role at Chariot and got a coding round built around HTTP-based maze traversal. Two parts: a cleaner BFS problem first, then a messier follow-up with retries, locked doors, and key collection. The kind of problem that feels manageable until you're actually writing it.
- You're given an HTTP API representing a maze. Starting from a fixed endpoint, write a program that explores locations by making GET requests and stops when it finds the exit, printing its id. Use breadth-first search to prefer shallower paths, and handle cycles.
- Extend your maze-solving program to handle transient server errors (500/502/503 with retries), locked doors that require specific keys, and locations that provide keys. Your program should collect keys as it explores and revisit previously blocked paths once the right key is available.
“BFS over HTTP is a slightly unusual framing but the mechanics are the same as graph traversal, just with network calls instead of an adjacency list.”