Introduction

In this blog post, we'll share the most commonly asked coding interview questions at Garmin. If you don't have months to study for your interviews, you can use AI tools like Chatmagic to generate solutions quickly and efficiently - helping you pass the interviews and get the job offer!

Problem #1: Minimum Cost of Buying Candies With Discount

A shop is selling candies at a discount. For every two candies sold, the shop gives a third candy for free. The customer can choose any candy to take away for free as long as the cost of the chosen candy is less than or equal to the minimum cost of the two candies bought. For example, if there are 4 candies with costs 1, 2, 3, and 4, and the customer buys candies with costs 2 and 3, they can take the candy with cost 1 for free, but not the candy with cost 4. Given a 0-indexed integer array cost, where cost[i] denotes the cost of the ith candy, return the minimum cost of buying all the candies. Example 1: Input: cost = [1,2,3] Output: 5 Explanation: We buy the candies with costs 2 and 3, and take the candy with cost 1 for free. The total cost of buying all candies is 2 + 3 = 5. This is the only way we can buy the candies. Note that we cannot buy candies with costs 1 and 3, and then take the candy with cost 2 for free. The cost of the free candy has to be less than or equal to the minimum cost of the purchased candies. Example 2: Input: cost = [6,5,7,9,2,2] Output: 23 Explanation: The way in which we can get the minimum cost is described below: - Buy candies with costs 9 and 7 - Take the candy with cost 6 for free - We buy candies with costs 5 and 2 - Take the last remaining candy with cost 2 for free Hence, the minimum cost to buy all candies is 9 + 7 + 5 + 2 = 23. Example 3: Input: cost = [5,5] Output: 10 Explanation: Since there are only 2 candies, we buy both of them. There is not a third candy we can take for free. Hence, the minimum cost to buy all candies is 5 + 5 = 10. Constraints: 1 <= cost.length <= 100 1 <= cost[i] <= 100

Topics: Array, Greedy, Sorting

Problem #2: Delete Columns to Make Sorted

You are given an array of n strings strs, all of the same length. The strings can be arranged such that there is one on each line, making a grid. For example, strs = ["abc", "bce", "cae"] can be arranged as follows: abc bce cae You want to delete the columns that are not sorted lexicographically. In the above example (0-indexed), columns 0 ('a', 'b', 'c') and 2 ('c', 'e', 'e') are sorted, while column 1 ('b', 'c', 'a') is not, so you would delete column 1. Return the number of columns that you will delete. Example 1: Input: strs = ["cba","daf","ghi"] Output: 1 Explanation: The grid looks as follows: cba daf ghi Columns 0 and 2 are sorted, but column 1 is not, so you only need to delete 1 column. Example 2: Input: strs = ["a","b"] Output: 0 Explanation: The grid looks as follows: a b Column 0 is the only column and is sorted, so you will not delete any columns. Example 3: Input: strs = ["zyx","wvu","tsr"] Output: 3 Explanation: The grid looks as follows: zyx wvu tsr All 3 columns are not sorted, so you will delete all 3. Constraints: n == strs.length 1 <= n <= 100 1 <= strs[i].length <= 1000 strs[i] consists of lowercase English letters.

Topics: Array, String