Implement inventory allocation with backorders

Q: Implement inventory allocation with backorders

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design and implement efficient data structures and algorithms for event-driven inventory allocation and backorder management, including analysis of time and space complexity and extensibility for operations like cancellation.

Q: How do I approach Coding & Algorithms interview questions?

Coding & Algorithms questions require understanding of core concepts and practice. PracHub provides solutions with explanations to help you master coding & algorithms interviews.

Question

Design and implement a function to process an event stream for an e-commerce marketplace. Input: (

initial inventory as a list of (sku: string, qty: int); (
events ordered by timestamp, each either Order(orderId: string, items: [(sku, qty)]) or Restock(items: [(sku, qty)]). Rules: For each Order, allocate from current inventory by SKU; if insufficient, fulfill what you can and record the remainder as a backorder for that order. When a Restock arrives, allocate to outstanding backorders in FIFO order before increasing on-hand inventory. Output: after all events, return (a) per-order fulfillment details (fulfilled and backordered quantities per SKU and whether fully fulfilled) and (b) final on-hand inventory by SKU. Constraints: up to 1e5 events and 1e5 distinct SKUs; target time O(E log S) and space O(S + B). Describe the data structures you would use (e.g., hash maps, heaps, queues) and analyze complexity. How would you extend this to support order cancellation in O(log S)?

Implement inventory allocation with backorders

Overview

Comments (0)