Find Smallest Common Row Value
Company: SoFi
Role: Software Engineer
Category: Coding & Algorithms
Difficulty: easy
Interview Round: Technical Screen
You are given a 2D integer matrix where each row is sorted in strictly increasing order. Return the smallest integer that appears in every row. If no such integer exists, return -1.
Assumptions:
- The matrix contains at least 1 row and 1 column.
- All rows have the same length.
- Values can be negative or positive.
Example:
Input:
[
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5],
[2, 4, 5, 8, 10],
[3, 5, 7, 9, 11],
[1, 3, 5, 7, 9]
]
Output:
5
During the interview, you may also be asked to clarify edge cases and write test methods or unit test cases for your solution.
Quick Answer: This question evaluates algorithmic problem-solving skills focused on array processing, intersection across multiple sorted sequences, and time/space complexity analysis.