Identify Overlapping Sessions and Optimize Coverage
Company: Robinhood
Role: Data Scientist
Category: Coding & Algorithms
Difficulty: Medium
Interview Round: Technical Screen
##### Scenario
During the technical screen, candidates must implement interval algorithms used in fraud-detection pipelines to reconcile overlapping user activity windows.
##### Question
Given a list of login sessions for a single user, each as [start_time, end_time], determine if any sessions overlap. 2. If overlaps exist, return the minimal set of session IDs to remove so that the remaining sessions are non-overlapping while maximizing total covered time.
##### Hints
Sort intervals, track previous end; greedy removal similar to ‘Non-overlapping Intervals’.
Quick Answer: This interview question evaluates algorithm design, data structures, correctness, complexity, edge cases, and implementation details in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer for Identify Overlapping Sessions and Optimize Coverage states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.
Solution
# Solution Alignment
The prompt asks for an implementation-level answer. The safest way to present it is to define the state, maintain clear invariants, then walk through complexity and tests.
## Problem Restatement
##### Scenario During the technical screen, candidates must implement interval algorithms used in fraud-detection pipelines to reconcile overlapping user activity windows. ##### Question Given a list of login sessions for a single user, each as [start_time, end_time], determine if any sessions overlap. 2. If overlaps exist, return the minimal set of session IDs to remove so that the remaining sessions are non-overlapping while maximizing total covered time. ##### Hints Sort intervals, track previous end; greedy removal similar to ‘Non-overlapping Intervals’.
## Recommended Approach
Start with a brute-force baseline to confirm correctness, then identify the repeated work or ordering property that enables a better data structure such as a hash map, heap, stack, queue, two pointers, prefix sums, BFS/DFS, or dynamic programming. Write the implementation around a small invariant and test that invariant directly.
## Correctness
The implementation should maintain an invariant after each loop or operation that directly matches the problem statement. At termination, that invariant implies the returned value has considered every valid candidate exactly once, or has preserved the required data-structure state after every API call.
## Complexity
State the baseline complexity and the optimized complexity. For most interview constraints, justify why the optimized approach meets the expected input size.
## Edge Cases and Tests
Empty and singleton inputs, duplicates, ties, invalid inputs, boundary values, and tests that exercise the main invariant.