Microsoft Interview Question for Software Engineer / Developers


Country: India
Interview Type: In-Person




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6
of 8 vote

array[0][0...N] = 0;
array[0...M][0]=0;
for i=1 to M
  for j=1 to N
     if(array[i-1][j] >= array[i][j-1])
            array[i][j] += array[i-1][j]
     else
           array[i][j] += array[i][j-1]

the maximum sum is stored in array[M][N]

- cobra July 23, 2012 | Flag Reply
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-1
of 1 vote

I don't believe it's sufficient enough. Consider following case. Also, you need to consider the border conditions e.g.) when x=m, only down, when y=n only right

1,2,3,4
1,1,1,1
9,9,9,9

- nsdxnsk July 23, 2012 | Flag
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0
of 0 votes

i don't understand what you are saying.. for your case answer is 38 (path: 1 1 9 9 9 9) and is achieved by the code i submitted..

- cobra July 23, 2012 | Flag
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-1
of 1 vote

No .. in that case .. considering the algorithm, the answer is 1 2 3 4 1 9

- pdesai July 24, 2012 | Flag
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0
of 0 votes

small changes.. replace M to M-1 and N to N-1 in the snippet i gave..
check the solution here: ideone.com/Gtpyn

- cobra July 24, 2012 | Flag
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-1
of 1 vote

still the same.....not getting 38..

- abh007 July 24, 2012 | Flag
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0
of 0 votes

it is 38 only.. check the solution in the link ideone.com/Gtpyn

- cobra July 24, 2012 | Flag
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0
of 0 votes

@cobra can you please explain how your algorithm is working

- siva July 24, 2012 | Flag
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-1
of 1 vote

@siva: this algorithm is just simple
1. you have to traverse each cell in 2D array
2. you have to compute maximum number of apples in each cell of 2D array...

after the computation of 2D array.. just print all the values in array form.. you will be clear..

- cobra July 24, 2012 | Flag
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0
of 0 votes

ya got it finally.....thanx..@cobra..
But i think there is a mistake..in 2nd line of code, there should be
array[0....M] [0]=0;

?????

- abh007 July 25, 2012 | Flag
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0
of 0 votes

@abh007: Sorry for that mistake.. you are right.. now the content is edited

- cobra July 25, 2012 | Flag
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0
of 0 votes

@cobra thank u for the explanation now i got it

- siva July 25, 2012 | Flag
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0
of 0 votes

Should'nt the answer be 206m with path (1, 100, 100, 2, 3) for following..


{{
{1, 2, 3, 6},
{100, 2, 6, 10},
{100, 2, 3, 3}
}}

- aidynamic September 23, 2012 | Flag
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1
of 1 vote

/// Using Dynamic Programming
/// t[ix][iy] = map[ix-1][iy-1] + max(t[ix-1][iy], t[ix-1][iy])
inline int max(int a, int b)
{
return (a < b) ? b : a;
}

int apple_collect()
{
int map[4][4] = {
{10, 9, 1, 2},
{3, 4, 3, 4},
{1, 2, 5, 8},
{8, 2, 3, 5}
};

int t[5][5];
memset(t, 0, sizeof(t));
int ix = 0, iy = 0;
for(ix = 1; ix <= 4; ix ++)
{
for(iy = 1; iy <= 4; iy ++)
{
int mx = max(t[ix-1][iy], t[ix][iy-1]);
mx += map[ix-1][iy-1];
t[ix][iy] = mx;
}
}

return t[4][4];
}

- zombie July 23, 2012 | Flag Reply
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1
of 1 vote

ITERATIVE:

public static int[][] getMaximalCostMatrix(int[][] valueMatrix)
    {
        int[][] costMatrix= new int[valueMatrix.length][valueMatrix[0].length];
        costMatrix[0][0]= valueMatrix[0][0];
        for(int i=1; i<costMatrix.length; i++)
        {
            costMatrix[i][0]= valueMatrix[i][0] + costMatrix[i-1][0];
            costMatrix[0][i]= valueMatrix[0][i] + costMatrix[0][i-1];
        }        
        
        for(int i=1; i<costMatrix.length; i++)
        {
            costMatrix[i][i]= valueMatrix[i][i] + max(costMatrix[i-1][i], costMatrix[i][i-1]);
            
            for(int j=i+1; j<costMatrix.length; j++)
            {
                costMatrix[i][j]= valueMatrix[i][j] + max(costMatrix[i-1][j], costMatrix[i][j-1]);
                costMatrix[j][i]= valueMatrix[j][i]+ max(costMatrix[j-1][i], costMatrix[j][i-1]);
            }
        }
        
        return costMatrix;
    }

RECURSIVE

public static void getMaximalCostMatrix(int[][] valueMatrix, int[][] costMatrix, int i, int j)
    {
        if(i==0&&j==0)
            costMatrix[i][j]= valueMatrix[i][j];
        else
        {
            
        if(i-1>=0&&costMatrix[i-1][j]==0)
        getMaximalCostMatrix(valueMatrix, costMatrix, i-1, j);
        if(j-1>=0&&costMatrix[i][j-1]==0)
        getMaximalCostMatrix(valueMatrix, costMatrix, i, j-1);
        
        int p= i-1>=0?costMatrix[i-1][j]:0;
        int q= j-1>=0?costMatrix[i][j-1]:0;
        
        costMatrix[i][j]= valueMatrix[i][j] + max(p,q);
        }
    }

- nj August 23, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

It can be done using Dynamic Programming, We will start with bottom right point and build it up.

- loveCoding July 23, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

Sounds like a DP problem.

- Anonymous July 24, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

I don't get the question in the first place. Don't you think that parsing the whole 2D array will give the maximum? Or I might be missing something?

- Victor July 24, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 votes

you are missing the fact that :-
if only down and right move's are allowed then you can cover atmost . 2*N-1 box for NXN matrix.

- singhsourabh90 July 24, 2012 | Flag
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0
of 0 vote

Correction : the last line should not contain a + inside max()

- zero_or_one July 24, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 2 vote

this can be solved using modified dijkstra algorithm , just u gonna use max-priority queue in place of min and some more minor modifications... atleast that is wat i think!!!

- Dhruva Bhaswar July 24, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

#include<stdio.h>
#define max(a,b) ((a)>(b) ? (a) : (b))
int main(){
int a[1001][1001],m,n,i,j;
	scanf("%d%d",&n,&m);
	for(i=0;i<n;i++)
		for(j=0;j<m;j++)
			scanf("%d",&a[i][j]);
for(i=n-2;i>=0;i--)
	a[i][m-1]+=a[i+1][m-1];
for(j=m-2;j>=0;j--)
	a[n-1][j]+=a[n-1][j+1];
for(i=n-2;i>=0;i--)
	for(j=m-2;j>=0;j--)
		a[i][j]+=max(a[i+1][j],a[i][j+1]);
printf("%d\n",a[0][0]);
return 0;

}

- anonymous July 25, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

let the ip array be a[m][n]
op=max sum int
---------------
i=j=0;
sum=0;
int fuc(i,j)
{
sum+=a[i][j]
if(i==m-1 && j==n-1)
return sum;
else
return max (fuc(a[i][j+1]) ,fuc(a[i+1][j])
}

- Anonymous July 26, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

please comment on the above code and let me kno if i'm right
-krPESIT

- Anonymous July 26, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

for(int i=1;i<4;i++)
for(int j=1;j<5;j++)
if(array[i-1][j]>=array[i][j-1])
array[i][j]+=array[i-1][j];
else
array[i][j]+=array[i][j-1];

- sukkhim July 26, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

How about this soln, simple recursion algo.

Function Signature Find(A, M, N, i, j, S)
A[M][N] - 2-D array
i,j - Starting coordinates(1,1) (I am assuming indexing from 1)
S - initially 0


Find(A, M, N, i, j, S)
{
if(i==M && j==N)
return S + A[i][j];
else
{
int S1=0, S2=0;
if(i<M)
{
S1 = Find(A, M, N, i+1, j, S + A[i][j]);
}

if(j<N)
{
S2 = Find(A, M, N, i, j+1, S + A[i][j]);
}

return S1>=S2 ? S1 : S2 ;
}
}

- Shakes July 27, 2012 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

int n, m;
vector< vector<int> > dp(n, vector<int>(m, 0));
dp[0][0] = a[0][0];
for (int j=1; j < m; j++)
        dp[0][j] += dp[0][j-1];
for (int i=1; i < n; i++)
        dp[i][0] += dp[i-1][0];
for (int i=1; i < n; i++) for (int j=1; j < m; j++)
          dp[i][j] = a[i][j] + max(dp[i][j-1], dp[i-1][j]);

return dp[n-1][m-1];

- Anonymous August 05, 2013 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

public class CountingApples {
    int m,n;
    int[][] apples;
    int[][] collect;

    public CountingApples(int m, int n, int[][] apples) {
        this.m = m;
        this.n = n;
        this.apples = apples;
        this.collect = new int[m][n];
    }

    private int computeMaxApples() {
        for(int i=0 ;i<m; i++) {
            for(int j=0 ;j<n; j++) {
                collect[i][j] = apples[i][j] + Math.max((i>0) ? collect[i-1][j] : 0, (j>0)? collect[i][j-1] : 0);
            }
        }
        return collect[m-1][n-1];
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int[][] apples = {
                {1, 2, 3, 4},
                {1, 1, 1, 1},
                {9, 9, 9, 9}
        };
        CountingApples ca = new CountingApples(3,4, apples);
        System.out.println("Max apples: " + ca.computeMaxApples());
    }

}

- Akhil Mittal January 27, 2018 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

class

- Akhil Mittal January 27, 2018 | Flag Reply
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0
of 0 vote

How to submit code?

- Akhil Mittal January 27, 2018 | Flag Reply
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-1
of 1 vote

use

for all i from 0 to M
        for all j from 0 to N
            if i and j both 0 continue;
            else if only i is 0 apples[i][j] += apples[i][j-1]
            else if only j is 0 apples[i][j] += apples[i-1][j]
            else apples[i][j] += max( apples[i-1][j] + apples[i][j-1] )

the cell at extreme bottom-right will give the maximum apples that can be collected.

- zero_or_one July 24, 2012 | Flag Reply
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-1
of 1 vote

use djikstra algo

- jasmeet@iastate.edu September 14, 2012 | Flag Reply


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