Microsoft | OA Coding Questions and Solutions | Set - 7| 2022

Question

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Answer 1

Microsoft Online Assessment (OA) - Min Adj Swaps to Group Red Balls

There are N balls positioned in a row. Each of them is either red or white . In one move we can swap two adjacent balls. We want to arrange all the red balls into a consistent segment. What is the minimum number of swaps needed?

Given string S of length N built from characters "R" and "W", representing red and white balls respectively, returns the minimum number of swaps needed to arrange all the red balls into a consistent segment. If the result exceeds 10^9, return -1.

Example 1:

Input:WRRWWR

Output: 2

Explanation:

We can move the last ball two positions to the left:

• swap R and W -> WRRWRW
• swap R and W -> WRRRWW

Example 2:

Input:WWRWWWRWR

Output: 4

Explanation:

We can move the last ball two positions to the left:

• swap R and W -> WWRWWWRRW
• swap R and W -> WWWRWWRRW
• swap R and W -> WWWWRWRRW
• swap R and W -> WWWWWRRRW

Example 3:

Input:WR repeated 100000 times.

Output: -1

Explanation:

The minimum needed number of swaps is greater than 10^9. So return -1.

Example 4:

Input:WWW

Output: 0

Explanation:

There are no red balls to arrange into a segment.

Answer 2

Microsoft Online Assessment (OA) - Largest K such that both K and -K exist in array

Given an array A of N integers, returns the largest integer K > 0 such that both values K and -K exist in array A. If there is no such integer, the function should return 0.

Example 1:

Input:[3, 2, -2, 5, -3]

Output: 3

Example 2:

Input:[1, 2, 3, -4]

Output: 0