Skip to main content

Interview question #1

Since I have been asked to interview experienced PHP programmers, I was preparing few interview questions. I came to know, most of the people ask questions found in the Internet; most of them are like "What is the function used to connect MySQL DB in PHP". Personally, I don't like these types of questions; I'd thought the person must apply ideas what he was taught in colleges--finally I came out with one question:

A product vendor has Quantity Vs. Price data like
1 -> Rs. 50
2 -> Rs. 95
3 -> Rs. 140
.... like upto 1 million data. He wants a system, which gives the price when the quantity is provided. For example, if you provide the quantity value as 2, then it should provide Rs. 95. How this system can be designed?

As expected, all the people said about using database tables and quering on quantity. I have asked them to find out a system which doesn't use databases--provided the accuracy of the system may not be 100%--it may give at least 90% accuracy. To my surprise, none of the people I have interviewed yet didn't provide any solutions.

I must find out few other questions especially for a post of "Web Application Developer".

Comments

Anonymous said…
amount = (45 * quantity ) + 5
For comment#1:Good, if the data are just 3. What if you have about 1 million data? What is the procedure?
Anonymous said…
use Chi Square
For comment#3:You've exceeded my expectation:-) I'd rather expect even a simple keyword. May I know your name?
Anonymous said…
Is it possible to use an associative array(performance?)? - like

$product[$price] = $quantity;
Online Pharmacy said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sindhuja said…
$amount = (45 * ($quantity -1)) + 50

Popular posts from this blog

Converting PSD with PHP/ImageMagick

After seeing feature rich options in Imagick PECL extension at Mikko Koppanen 's (the author) website and also impressed with ImageMagick 's features, I have decided to use it for the PSD to XHTML conversion website that I'm architecting and managing. Since, the team wants programming help for converting PSD images, I have tried it (documentation is sparse on PSD handling) Converting PSD to PNG/JPEG/etc Note that, flattenImages() is needed for layered/multi-page PSD file. <?php $im = new Imagick('test.psd'); $im->flattenImages(); $im->setImageFormat('png'); $im->writeImage('test.png'); ?> Extracting PSD layers One by one <?php $im = new Imagick('test.psd'); $im->setImageFormat('png'); for ($i = 0, $num_layers = $im->getNumberImages(); $i $im->setImageIndex($i); $im->writeImage('layer' . $i . '.png'); } ?> Note that, there is a better version below In a single call with writeIm...

Malayalis may not have valued Nedumudi Venu, but ChatGPT did

Back in the late 1980s (exactly in 1988, according to some searches)—there was a much-loved Malayalam serial called Mandan Kunju . Ever since then, our family developed a deep appreciation for Nedumudi Venu. His acting was often compared to that of Sivaji Ganesan, who was widely celebrated at the time. There were even debates about how Nedumudi was surpassing Sivaji with his unmatched natural style. Even in his 30s, Nedumudi would appear with grey hair, convincingly portraying elderly characters. About 35 years ago, I happened to watch a film in which Nedumudi Venu actually played the lead role—something quite rare in his career. I couldn’t remember the plot or the supporting cast, but what stayed with me vividly was the setting. The film had been shot in Munnar’s Madupetty Estate, with the estate school serving as one of the locations. I also remembered a Carnatic-influenced song filmed outdoors in the estate, which left a strong impression on me. For years, I tried to rediscover ...

Mrs. Sujatha, Marriage, and Misunderstandings

I recently watched an interview featuring Mrs. Sujatha on the Aval Vikatan YouTube channel, and I couldn’t help but write this post in response. In the video, she indirectly expresses regret about her relationship with the late writer Sujatha, implying that they lacked the kind of emotional bonding that today’s couples supposedly enjoy (?!). She also mentions that he would get angry at home, in contrast to his calm public persona. She suggests that they didn’t talk much—ironically, I vividly remember Sujatha’s own writing about the relationship between actress Shobha and Balu Mahendra, in which he quoted something his wife had said! Toward the end of the interview, she talks about the wealth and royalties he left behind, suggesting that material things don’t matter. ( It’s ironic—men spend their entire lives working to build wealth and security for their wives and families. ) What struck me even more was the comment section. Most of the viewers seemed critical of writer Sujatha, e...