Ixana·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen
May 2026
Got a coding problem at Ixana for a Software Engineer role that was basically a scheduling/execution engine for register operations parsed from a file. Two levels of complexity, the second adding intra-batch dependency tracking. Felt like a systems-adjacent design problem more than a pure algorithms question, which I wasn't fully expecting.
- Given a file describing batches of register read/write operations, implement a function that parses the file, computes a valid logical-time schedule respecting timing constraints (1ms minimum gap between ops, 10ms read-after-write hazard on the same register, strict batch ordering), and executes the operations via provided read_reg and write_reg primitives.
- Extend the solution to handle intra-batch dependencies: some read operations reference another operation line within the same batch (by 1-based line number) and must be scheduled after that referenced operation completes. How do you modify your scheduling logic?
“This took me a while to even fully parse the problem statement, no pun intended.”