Software Engineer, Audio SWE

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Describe the difference between a stack and a queue. Provide an example of when you might use each data structure. Write functions to implement the push and pop methods for a stack and the enqueue and dequeue methods for a queue. Explain the time complexity of each of these operations. Additionally, discuss a scenario where you might need to implement a stack using a queue or a queue using a stack.

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Design an Autocomplete Service Let's design an autocomplete service, similar to what you'd find in Google Search or a code editor. The service should provide suggestions as the user types a query. Consider the following requirements: Functionality: The service should return the top k most relevant suggestions based on the user's input. Suggestions should be ranked by popularity (e.g., frequency of search). The system should support a large number of concurrent users. The system should be able to handle a large vocabulary of terms. The service needs to provide real-time or near real-time suggestions (low latency). The service should be fault-tolerant and highly available. Example: If a user types softw, the service might return: [software engineer, software developer, software company, software jobs]. If a user types ja, the service might return: [java, javascript, jakarta, james]. Considerations: How would you store the data to enable fast lookups? How would you handle updates to the suggestion data (e.g., new terms, updated popularity)? How would you scale the system to handle a large number of requests? What algorithms and data structures would you use? How would you optimize for latency? How would you handle different languages or character sets? How would you measure the performance of the service? Walk me through the design of this autocomplete service, considering the key components, data structures, algorithms, and scaling strategies. Describe any trade-offs you would make.

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Could you describe a situation where you faced a significant memory leak issue in a C++ application and how you diagnosed and resolved it? Please walk me through the tools and techniques you used, the challenges you encountered, and the ultimate solution you implemented. For example, imagine you're working on a large-scale C++ application for processing high-volume financial transactions. The application is experiencing performance degradation over time, eventually leading to crashes. After initial investigation, you suspect a memory leak. Describe your approach to identifying the source of the leak. Consider discussing the specific tools you might employ, such as memory profilers (e.g., Valgrind, AddressSanitizer), debugging techniques (e.g., heap analysis), and code review strategies. What were some of the initial hypotheses you formed, and how did you validate or refute them? What were the key code areas you focused on based on your initial findings? Furthermore, explain any specific coding practices or patterns that contributed to the leak (e.g., improper use of smart pointers, forgetting to release dynamically allocated memory). How did you correct these issues, and what steps did you take to prevent similar leaks from occurring in the future? Did you implement any automated testing or monitoring to detect memory leaks early on? Finally, reflect on any lessons learned from this experience and how it has shaped your approach to memory management in C++.