Optiver interview notes, page 6 of 10

“Spent the first few minutes trying to simulate it with a BFS and realized that could blow up badly given the constraint range goes up to 10^9.” The rest of the author's notes on Data Scientist interview at Optiver, Technical Phone Screen round, covers how they worked through the question, what the panel pushed back on, and what they would do differently.

“The leap year rule is where people slip up.” The rest of the author's notes on Software Engineer interview at Optiver, Technical Phone Screen round, covers how they worked through the question, what the panel pushed back on, and what they would do differently.

“The opener sounds easy until you realize every follow-up depends entirely on what you say here.” The rest of the author's notes on Software Engineer interview at Optiver, Recruiter / HR Screen round, covers how they worked through the question, what the panel pushed back on, and what they would do differently.

“The part that trips people up is they want something real, not the 'I care too much' non-answer.” The rest of the author's notes on Software Engineer interview at Optiver, Onsite - Behavioral / Leadership round, covers how they worked through the question, what the panel pushed back on, and what they would do differently.

“I knew the general shape of the answer from having seen gambler's ruin problems before, but the general [a, b] framing made me second-guess my setup.” The rest of the author's notes on Software Engineer interview at Optiver, Technical Phone Screen round, covers how they worked through the question, what the panel pushed back on, and what they would do differently.

“The single-threaded version took me about two minutes.” The rest of the author's notes on Software Engineer interview at Optiver, Technical Phone Screen round, covers how they worked through the question, what the panel pushed back on, and what they would do differently.

“This was a full system design plus implementation question, not just a concept sketch.” The rest of the author's notes on Software Engineer interview at Optiver, Technical Phone Screen round, covers how they worked through the question, what the panel pushed back on, and what they would do differently.

“This wrecked me a little because I started thinking BFS and they clearly wanted something more principled.” The rest of the author's notes on Data Scientist interview at Optiver, Technical Phone Screen round, covers how they worked through the question, what the panel pushed back on, and what they would do differently.

“Stared at it for a bit trying to spot a ratio pattern first, which was a dead end.” The rest of the author's notes on Software Engineer interview at Optiver, Technical Phone Screen round, covers how they worked through the question, what the panel pushed back on, and what they would do differently.

“The 90-second cap is real and they mean it.” The rest of the author's notes on Data Scientist interview at Optiver, Technical Phone Screen round, covers how they worked through the question, what the panel pushed back on, and what they would do differently.