Find a User's Airport at a Given Time from Flight Records

Quick Overview

This Ramp software engineering question tests timeline reasoning from flight records to determine a user's airport at a given time. It is useful for practicing interval logic, event ordering, and careful treatment of incomplete or boundary-case itinerary data.

Find a User's Airport at a Given Time from Flight Records

Company: Ramp

Role: Software Engineer

Category: Software Engineering Fundamentals

Difficulty: medium

Interview Round: Technical Screen

Given flight records with departure airport, departure time, arrival airport, arrival time, and user id, implement a function that returns where a given user is at a specified time. The answer should account for whether the user is at an airport or currently in flight. ### Constraints & Assumptions - Flight intervals for a user do not overlap unless clarified. - Times can be compared after parsing into a single timezone. - The input may contain records for many users. - Return values should distinguish airport, in-flight, and unknown states. ### Clarifying Questions to Ask - If the query time is exactly the departure time, is the user at the origin or in flight? - If it is exactly the arrival time, is the user at the destination? - Should the function return the flight id when in flight? - Can users have connecting flights or missing initial location? - How large is the input? ### What a Strong Answer Covers ```premium-lock What a Strong Answer Covers ``` ### Follow-up Questions - How would you support many repeated queries? - How would delays or cancellations change the model? - How would you handle time zones? - How would overlapping records be detected?

Quick Answer: This Ramp software engineering question tests timeline reasoning from flight records to determine a user's airport at a given time. It is useful for practicing interval logic, event ordering, and careful treatment of incomplete or boundary-case itinerary data.

|Home/Software Engineering Fundamentals/Ramp
Ramp logo
Ramp
Jul 2, 2026, 7:02 PM
mediumSoftware EngineerTechnical ScreenSoftware Engineering Fundamentals
30
0

Given flight records with departure airport, departure time, arrival airport, arrival time, and user id, implement a function that returns where a given user is at a specified time. The answer should account for whether the user is at an airport or currently in flight.

Constraints & Assumptions

  • Flight intervals for a user do not overlap unless clarified.
  • Times can be compared after parsing into a single timezone.
  • The input may contain records for many users.
  • Return values should distinguish airport, in-flight, and unknown states.

Clarifying Questions to Ask Guidance

  • If the query time is exactly the departure time, is the user at the origin or in flight?
  • If it is exactly the arrival time, is the user at the destination?
  • Should the function return the flight id when in flight?
  • Can users have connecting flights or missing initial location?
  • How large is the input?

What a Strong Answer Covers Premium

Follow-up Questions Guidance

  • How would you support many repeated queries?
  • How would delays or cancellations change the model?
  • How would you handle time zones?
  • How would overlapping records be detected?
Loading comments...