Sorting, Pairs and Intervals

Barclays OAs have included all three, each a familiar problem under a business story. One is a pair search, one merges neighbouring entries, and one is about intervals.

None of them needs more than a sort and one linear pass. The marks depend on the rules in the wording, such as how a tie breaks, whether the output is a list or a count, and whether a stretch covered twice counts twice.

The Barclays angle

Expect the brute force to pass the samples. A double loop over pairs clears the small cases in the statement, and so does a sum that ignores overlaps when the sample has none. The hidden cases are bigger and messier, and that's where the shortcut fails on time or on the count. You can keep the brute force as a checker, but submit the sorted version.

BarclaysPremium lesson · Coding round

The 3 Barclays problems are below.

1. 1A Premium questionCoding · Medium · Frequently asked
2. 2A Premium questionCoding · Medium
3. 3A Premium questionCoding · Medium

Each with hints, the follow-up and a tested solution.

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From 108 Barclays reports, forum threads behind logins and write-ups in Chinese.

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