200+ SDE Interview Questions
Master System Design, DSA & Behavioral
Comprehensive Interview Preparation Guide
Interview Topics Covered
• Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA) – Arrays, Strings, Linked Lists, Trees, Graphs, Dynamic Programming
• System Design – Scalable architectures, distributed systems, real-world problem solving
• Behavioral – Leadership principles, problem-solving approach, team collaboration
• Advanced Topics – Heaps, Greedy algorithms, Math, Bit manipulation, Geometry
Arrays & Strings - Part 1
• Two Sum variants (indices, count pairs, unique pairs)
• Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock (I/II/with cooldown/with fee)
• Product of Array Except Self (zeros & negatives)
• Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters
• Minimum Window Substring
• Longest Palindromic Substring
• Valid Anagram / Group Anagrams
• Merge Intervals / Insert Interval
Arrays & Strings - Part 2
• Subarray Sum Equals K (positive & mixed)
• Maximum Subarray (Kadane) + circular variant
• Container With Most Water
• Trapping Rain Water (two pointers & stack)
• 3Sum / 4Sum / 3Sum Closest
• Word Break (I/II) – DP vs Trie
• Valid Parentheses / Minimum Add to Make Valid
• Sliding Window Maximum (deque)
Arrays & Strings - Part 3
• Search in Rotated Sorted Array (I/II)
• Longest Consecutive Sequence
• Set Matrix Zeroes (in-place)
• Spiral Matrix (I/II)
• Rotate Image (in-place 2D transform)
• Word Search (board backtracking)
• Distinct Subsequences (count ways)
Hash / Stack / Queue - Part 1
• LRU Cache (design) – hashmap + doubly linked list
• LFU Cache (design) – freq lists
• Min Stack / Max Stack (getMin in O(1))
• Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation
• Basic Calculator I/II/III (parentheses, precedence)
• Next Greater Element (I/II) – monotonic stack
• Daily Temperatures – monotonic stack
• Queue using Stacks / Stack using Queues
Hash / Stack / Queue - Part 2
• Implement Circular Queue / Deque
• Design Hit Counter / Rate Limiter
• Design Browser History (two stacks)
• Decode String (k[encoded])
• Remove K Digits to form smallest number
• Asteroid Collision (stack)
• Largest Rectangle in Histogram
• Maximal Rectangle in Binary Matrix
Linked Lists Problems
• Reverse Linked List (I/II partial groups of k)
• Merge Two Sorted Lists / Merge K Sorted Lists (heap)
• Add Two Numbers (forward & reverse order)
• Remove Nth Node From End
• Reorder List / Odd Even Linked List
• Linked List Cycle (detect & entry point)
• Copy List with Random Pointer
• Partition List by value
• Sort List (merge sort on list)
• Rotate List / Swap Nodes in Pairs
Trees & BST - Part 1
• Binary Tree Traversals (Inorder/Preorder/Postorder)
• Level Order Traversal / Zigzag Level Order
• Diameter of Binary Tree
• Balanced Binary Tree / Height Balanced Check
• Maximum Depth / Minimum Depth of Binary Tree
• Path Sum I/II/III (count paths)
• Lowest Common Ancestor (Binary Tree & BST)
• Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree (design)
Trees & BST - Part 2
• Construct Tree from Preorder & Inorder / Postorder
• Binary Tree Right Side View / Left View
• Flatten Binary Tree to Linked List
• Validate Binary Search Tree (bounds)
• Kth Smallest / Largest in BST
• Convert Sorted Array/List to BST
• Inorder Successor/Predecessor in BST
• Range Sum of BST / Trim BST
• Recover Binary Search Tree (swap fix)
Graphs - Part 1
• Number of Islands (DFS/BFS/Union-Find)
• Clone Graph (BFS/DFS)
• Course Schedule I/II (topological sort)
• Alien Dictionary (topo + lexicographic constraints)
• Word Ladder I/II (BFS + heuristics)
• Pacific Atlantic Water Flow / Surrounded Regions
• Walls and Gates / Rotting Oranges
• Shortest Path in Binary Matrix / Maze solver
Graphs - Part 2
• Network Delay Time (Dijkstra)
• Cheapest Flights Within K Stops (Bellman-Ford/DP)
• Reconstruct Itinerary (Hierholzer / Eulerian path)
• Redundant Connection (Union-Find)
• Graph Valid Tree / Count Components
• Kruskal / Prim Minimum Spanning Tree (design question)
• Evaluate Division (graph with weights)
• Accounts Merge (Union-Find)
• Critical Connections (Tarjan bridges)
Searching & Sorting Problems
• Quickselect (Kth Largest Element)
• Top K Frequent Elements (heap/bucket)
• Sort Colors (DNF) / 3-way partition
• Merge K Sorted Arrays (heap) / external sort idea
• Search a 2D Matrix (I/II)
• Find Peak Element / Mountain Array peak
• Median of Two Sorted Arrays (binary search on partitions)
• H-Index / H-Index II
• Find Duplicate Number (Floyd vs binary search on answer)
Heaps & Greedy - Part 1
• Meeting Rooms II (min-heap)
• Task Scheduler (cooldown) – greedy + heap
• Reorganize String / Rearrange String k Distance Apart
• IPO / Maximize Capital (two heaps)
• Hand of Straights / Divide Array in Sets of K
• Boats to Save People / Assign Cookies
• Gas Station (greedy proof)
• Jump Game I/II (greedy farthest reach)
Heaps & Greedy - Part 2
• Partition Labels
• Minimum Number of Arrows to Burst Balloons
• Non-overlapping Intervals (erase minimum)
• Candy (two-pass greedy)
• Lemonade Change
• Split Array Largest Sum (binary search + greedy check)
• Minimum Cost to Connect Sticks (heap)
Dynamic Programming - Part 1
• Climbing Stairs / Min Cost Climbing Stairs
• House Robber I/II/III
• Coin Change (min coins, count combinations)
• Longest Increasing Subsequence (O(n log n))
• Edit Distance (Levenshtein)
• Decode Ways I/II
• Unique Paths I/II (with obstacles)
• Partition Equal Subset Sum / Target Sum
Dynamic Programming - Part 2
• Burst Balloons (interval DP)
• Palindromic Substrings / Longest Palindromic Subsequence
• Regular Expression Matching / Wildcard Matching
• Best Time to Buy/Sell Stock with K transactions
• Word Break DP (count ways vs boolean)
• Interleaving String
• Scramble String
• Matrix Chain Multiplication / Minimum Score Triangulation
• Paint House I/II (with k colors)
• Knapsack 0/1 & Unbounded variants (pattern)
Math / Bit / Geometry Problems
• Reverse Bits / Number of 1 Bits
• Single Number I/II/III (bitwise)
• Missing Number / Find All Missing / Duplicates
• Power of Two/Three/Four / Fast Pow (binary exponentiation)
• Count Primes / Sieve of Eratosthenes
• Greatest Common Divisor / Euclid / LCM problems
• Happy Number / Ugly Number / Super Ugly Number
• Rectangle Overlap / Line Sweep basics
• Random Pick with Weight / Reservoir Sampling
• Kth Smallest in Multiplication Table (binary search on answer)
System Design - Part 1
• Design a URL Shortener
• Design a News Feed / Timeline
• Design a Rate Limiter (per user/IP) – token bucket
• Design a Key-Value Store (caching + persistence)
• Design an E-commerce Cart & Checkout
• Design a Messaging/Chat System (WhatsApp-lite)
• Design a File Storage Service (Dropbox/Google Drive)
• Design a Web Crawler
System Design - Part 2
• Design a Ride-Hailing/Dispatch System
• Design a Logging & Metrics System
• Design a Notification Service (email/SMS/push)
• Design a Payment System (idempotency, retries)
• Design a Search Autocomplete
• Design a Video Streaming Platform (Netflix-lite)
• Design a Pastebin
• Design a Social Graph (follow/unfollow, recommendations)
• Design a Leaderboard (time-decay, top-N)
System Design - Part 3
• Design a Distributed Job Queue
• Design a Real-time Analytics Pipeline
• Design a Feature Flag Service
Behavioral Questions - Part 1
• Tell me about a time you owned an ambiguous problem end-to-end (Ownership)
• Describe a situation you disagreed with a senior engineer and what happened (Disagree & Commit)
• Tell me about a time you improved performance or reduced cost (Deliver Results)
• Give an example when you prioritized customer needs over engineering preferences (Customer Obsession)
• Tell me about a production incident you handled—root cause and prevention (Dive Deep)
Behavioral Questions - Part 2
• Describe a time you moved fast with incomplete information (Bias for Action)
• Tell me about mentoring a teammate and the impact (Hire/Develop the Best)
• Describe a time you simplified a complex system or process (Invent & Simplify)
• Tell me about a failure—what did you learn and change? (Learn & Be Curious)
• How do you handle conflicting deadlines across teams? (Earn Trust)
Interview Success Strategy
• DSA Mastery: Practice 30-40 problems from each category to identify patterns
• System Design: Focus on scalability, availability, consistency trade-offs
• Behavioral: Use STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result
• Time Management: Allocate 40-45 min for algorithm problems, 35-40 min for system design
• Code Quality: Write clean, well-commented code with edge case handling
• Communication: Talk through your thought process, ask clarifying questions
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Master these 200+ questions and you'll be prepared for any SDE role