Attentive coding interview
questions, leaked.
9 problems reported across recent Attentive interviews. Top patterns: string, array, stack. The list below is what most reported candidates actually saw, plus the honest play if you can't grind all of it.
Attentive's coding assessment hits you with string and array problems right away. Nine problems total, split evenly between medium and easy/hard, but here's what matters: five of them are pure string manipulation, and another five touch arrays. You'll see stacks and hash tables repeatedly. The hard problems (Parse Lisp Expression, Integer to English Words) are syntax-parsing nightmares that eat time. If you blank mid-assessment, StealthCoder runs invisibly and surfaces a working solution in seconds, invisible to the proctor.
Top problems at Attentive
| # | Problem | Diff | Frequency | Pass % | Patterns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Remove All Adjacent Duplicates in String II | MEDIUM | 100.0 | 60% | String · Stack |
| 02 | Parse Lisp Expression | HARD | 93.2 | 53% | Hash Table · String · Stack |
| 03 | Valid Palindrome II | EASY | 73.6 | 43% | Two Pointers · String · Greedy |
| 04 | Find Pivot Index | EASY | 63.9 | 61% | Array · Prefix Sum |
| 05 | Valid Sudoku | MEDIUM | 56.2 | 62% | Array · Hash Table · Matrix |
| 06 | Integer to English Words | HARD | 56.2 | 34% | Math · String · Recursion |
| 07 | Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation | MEDIUM | 56.2 | 55% | Array · Math · Stack |
| 08 | Top K Frequent Words | MEDIUM | 56.2 | 59% | Array · Hash Table · String |
| 09 | Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array | MEDIUM | 56.2 | 47% | Array · Binary Search |
Frequencies derived from public community-tagged interview reports. Click a row to view on LeetCode.
You have a week, maybe less. You can't out-grind the list above. StealthCoder runs invisibly during the actual Attentive OA. The proctor cannot see it. Screen share cannot detect it. Built because the OA filter rejects engineers who'd pass the on-site. That's a broken filter. This is the workaround.
Get StealthCoder- string5 · 56%
- array5 · 56%
- stack3 · 33%
- hash table3 · 33%
- recursion2 · 22%
- math2 · 22%
- prefix sum1 · 11%
- two pointers1 · 11%
- greedy1 · 11%
- matrix1 · 11%
String and array dominate the problem set, so those are your day-one drills. Stack problems show up frequently enough that you can't skip them, and hash-table fundamentals are woven into the medium-tier questions. The two hard problems reward recursion chops and parsing logic, not raw algorithm knowledge. Most of Attentive's medium problems (Remove All Adjacent Duplicates, Valid Sudoku, Top K Frequent Words, Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation) are pattern-matching exercises: you've either seen the stack trick or you haven't. Recursion appears only twice, but when it does, it's paired with string parsing, which is brutal under pressure. StealthCoder is your hedge here. The easy tier (Valid Palindrome II, Find Pivot Index) are warm-ups, but don't sleep on them; they establish the baseline speed you need.
Companies with similar patterns
If you prepped for Attentive, these companies recycle ~60% of the same topics.
You've seen the list.
Now make sure you pass Attentive.
Memorizing every problem above in a week is a fantasy. StealthCoder is the hedge: an AI overlay that's invisible during screen share. It reads the problem on screen and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Built because the OA filter rejects engineers who'd pass the on-site. That's a broken filter. This is the workaround. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Attentive interview FAQ
How many string problems should I drill before the Attentive assessment?+
Five of nine problems touch strings directly. Prioritize stack-with-string patterns (Remove All Adjacent Duplicates, Parse Lisp) and string-parsing edge cases. Two days of focused drills on those two problems alone will cover most of your exposure. The rest of string work (palindrome, word frequency) are secondary.
Is recursion a weak point I need to shore up for this interview?+
Recursion appears in only two problems (Parse Lisp Expression, Integer to English Words), both hard. If recursion isn't your comfort zone, those two will likely stall you. Spend one focused session on recursive string parsing and number-to-text conversion. If you hit either one cold during the OA, StealthCoder solves it.
What's the quickest way to prepare for Attentive's medium-tier problems?+
Four of five medium problems rely on hash tables or stacks (or both). Drill Remove All Adjacent Duplicates and Valid Sudoku back-to-back: they teach you when to use a stack vs. a hash table for validation. Top K Frequent Words and Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation are pattern-heavy; once you see the trick, they're fast.
Should I spend time on two-pointers, greedy, or prefix-sum for this interview?+
Each appears once. Valid Palindrome II uses two-pointers, Find Pivot Index uses prefix-sum, neither is a focus area. They're confidence builders on day one, not cramming priorities. Solve them to warm up, then pivot to string and stack work.
What if I can't solve one of the hard problems during the assessment?+
Both hard problems (Parse Lisp Expression, Integer to English Words) require either prior exposure or strong parsing intuition. If you're mid-OA and hit a wall, you've got five medium and two easy problems to bank points on. The hard problems are point-maximizers, not point-insurance.