Software Development Engineer in Test: Mail, Messages, FaceTime, and Phone

Apple

You are given a 0-indexed array of positive integers nums. A subarray of nums is called incremovable if nums becomes strictly increasing on removing the subarray. For example, the subarray [3, 4] is an incremovable subarray of [5, 3, 4, 6, 7] because removing this subarray changes the array [5, 3, 4, 6, 7] to [5, 6, 7] which is strictly increasing. Return the total number of *incremovable* subarrays of nums. Note that an empty array is considered strictly increasing. A subarray is a contiguous non-empty sequence of elements within an array. Example 1: Input: nums = [1,2,3,4] Output: 10 Explanation: The 10 incremovable subarrays are: [1], [2], [3], [4], [1,2], [2,3], [3,4], [1,2,3], [2,3,4], and [1,2,3,4], because on removing any one of these subarrays nums becomes strictly increasing. Note that you cannot select an empty subarray. Example 2: Input: nums = [6,5,7,8] Output: 7 Explanation: The 7 incremovable subarrays are: [5], [6], [5,7], [6,5], [5,7,8], [6,5,7] and [6,5,7,8]. It can be shown that there are only 7 incremovable subarrays in nums. Example 3: Input: nums = [8,7,6,6] Output: 3 Explanation: The 3 incremovable subarrays are: [8,7,6], [7,6,6], and [8,7,6,6]. Note that [8,7] is not an incremovable subarray because after removing [8,7] nums becomes [6,6], which is sorted in ascending order but not strictly increasing.

Apple

Let's discuss platform architecture. Imagine you are tasked with designing a platform for a rapidly growing social media company. This platform needs to handle millions of users, support various media types (images, videos, text), and provide real-time updates. Consider the following: Scalability: How would you design the architecture to ensure it can handle increasing user traffic and data volume? Discuss specific technologies and strategies (e.g., load balancing, caching, sharding). Reliability: What measures would you take to ensure the platform remains available and fault-tolerant? Consider redundancy, monitoring, and disaster recovery. Performance: How would you optimize the platform for speed and responsiveness? Address concerns like database performance, content delivery, and API design. Security: What security considerations would you prioritize to protect user data and prevent attacks? Think about authentication, authorization, encryption, and vulnerability management. Cost: How would you balance performance, scalability, and reliability with cost-effectiveness? Discuss trade-offs and potential cost optimization strategies. Provide a high-level overview of your proposed architecture, including key components, technologies, and design principles. Explain your reasoning behind each choice and how it contributes to the overall goals of the platform. For example, would you choose a microservices architecture or a monolithic architecture? What type of database would you use and why? How would you handle real-time updates and notifications? What CDNs would you use?

Apple

Let's explore the concept of feedback amplifiers in the context of software development teams. Imagine you are leading a team working on a critical feature for a new mobile application. Communication bottlenecks and misunderstandings are starting to impact the team's velocity and morale. As a senior engineer, you recognize the need to amplify feedback loops to improve team performance. Describe what a feedback amplifier is and how it works in practice.** Provide concrete examples of how you would implement feedback amplifiers within your team. Consider different types of feedback, such as code reviews, sprint retrospectives, and individual performance reviews. Explain the benefits of using feedback amplifiers.** How can they improve code quality, reduce bugs, and increase team collaboration? Quantify the potential impact using hypothetical scenarios or past experiences. For instance, how might more frequent code reviews, coupled with automated static analysis, lead to a measurable reduction in the number of bugs discovered in production? Discuss the potential challenges and pitfalls of implementing feedback amplifiers.** What steps would you take to mitigate these risks? Think about issues like information overload, negative feedback bias, and the time investment required to implement and maintain effective feedback loops. How would you ensure that the feedback process remains constructive, fair, and actionable for all team members? Elaborate on your answer by considering specific tools or techniques you have used in the past to amplify feedback, such as using dashboards to visualize key performance indicators, conducting regular pulse surveys to gauge team sentiment, or establishing a system for tracking and resolving action items from retrospective meetings. Also, discuss how you would tailor your approach based on the size and structure of the team, as well as the specific project goals and constraints.