Java Interview with a Microsoft engineer

Watch someone solve the k closest points problem in an interview with a Microsoft engineer and see the feedback their interviewer left them. Explore this problem and others in our library of interview replays.

Java interview with a Microsoft engineer: K closest points - YouTube

Java interview with a Microsoft engineer: K closest points

Interview Summary

Problem type
K closest points

Interview question

1. Find the K closest points to a vertex
2. How would you modify the solution if the input was an infinite streak of points?

Interview Feedback

Feedback about Inventive Wind (the interviewee)
Advance this person to the next round?
No

How were their technical skills?
3/4
How was their problem solving ability?
2/4
What about their communication ability?
3/4

It was a pleasure interviewing with you. So as I mentioned, I would def advance you to onsites but I'm very on the edge of passing you for an offer. And with that I'm going with a weak no hire. Meaning you were almost there but not enough. Which also means that if others pass you then it's a pass. So as mentioned, I evaluate in 4 categories. Technical skills, Algorithms and Data structure knowledge, communication skills and problem solving. Some thoughts of that are below. Also, I would like to see you work faster at these problems. You weren't really at a point where the code worked before we ran out of time.

... Overall you did well, just needed a little bit more work. Mainly in how fast you work through a problem. As you advanced, your expectation to finish the problem faster goes up.

Feedback about Indelible Raven (the interviewer)
Would you want to work with this person?
Yes

How excited would you be to work with them?
4/4
How good were the questions?
4/4
How helpful was your interviewer in guiding you to the solution(s)?
4/4

I think how you conducted the interview was very helpful. I don't know how your approach lines up with other interviewers on this platform but this was one of the more helpful practice sessions I have had. I really do appreciate the feedback at the end with some tips for improvement as well as the insight into how you would conduct the real-world interview.

Interview Transcript

Inventive Wind: Hello.
Indelible Raven: Hi.
... (Omitted for brevity)

Code and Optimization Discussion

Inventive Wind: ...So, I guess...

• Maintain the K lowest points with a priority queue.
• Evaluate optimizations for distances and check conditions.

... if you had K points that were equal to the vertex then you would obviously...

... the big thing is I mean in Java typically static methods like this are typically not encouraged by most Java style guides...

Conclusion

Indelible Raven: ...If this was a very hire/no hire decision, I would swing to a very weak no hire, which means I'm on the edge of saying hire or no hire.

Inventive Wind: ...this was very helpful, you're a good interviewer and I do appreciate the feedback. It's much more informative than basically any other way of practicing.