Yandex coding interview
questions, leaked.
119 problems reported across recent Yandex interviews. Top patterns: array, hash table, string. The list below is what most candidates actually saw, plus the honest play if you can't grind all of it.
Yandex pulls from a pool of 119 problems, heavily weighted toward array manipulation and hash-table lookups. You're looking at 72 medium-difficulty problems and only 9 hard ones, which means the bar is speed and pattern recognition, not theoretical depth. Arrays dominate the assessment, so your first week should be arrays, hash-tables, and two-pointer work. If you hit a wall on a sliding-window or hash-table problem mid-assessment, StealthCoder runs invisibly during the screen share and surfaces a working solution in seconds.
Top problems at Yandex
| # | Problem | Diff | Frequency | Pass % | Patterns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Longest Strictly Increasing or Strictly Decreasing Subarray | EASY | 0.0 | 65% | Array |
| 02 | Longest Subarray of 1's After Deleting One Element | MEDIUM | 100.0 | 69% | Array · Dynamic Programming · Sliding Window |
| 03 | Summary Ranges | EASY | 95.2 | 53% | Array |
| 04 | String Compression | MEDIUM | 89.2 | 58% | Two Pointers · String |
| 05 | Find K Closest Elements | MEDIUM | 88.3 | 49% | Array · Two Pointers · Binary Search |
| 06 | Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree III | MEDIUM | 0.0 | 82% | Hash Table · Two Pointers · Tree |
| 07 | Basic Calculator II | MEDIUM | 0.0 | 46% | Math · String · Stack |
| 08 | Isomorphic Strings | EASY | 83.9 | 47% | Hash Table · String |
| 09 | Subarray Sum Equals K | MEDIUM | 82.3 | 45% | Array · Hash Table · Prefix Sum |
| 10 | Permutation in String | MEDIUM | 81.9 | 47% | Hash Table · Two Pointers · String |
| 11 | Valid Palindrome | EASY | 81.0 | 51% | Two Pointers · String |
| 12 | Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) | MEDIUM | 81.0 | 55% | Array · Hash Table · Math |
| 13 | Move Zeroes | EASY | 80.6 | 63% | Array · Two Pointers |
| 14 | Line Reflection | MEDIUM | 80.1 | 36% | Array · Hash Table · Math |
| 15 | Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | MEDIUM | 79.7 | 37% | Hash Table · String · Sliding Window |
| 16 | Merge Intervals | MEDIUM | 77.6 | 49% | Array · Sorting |
| 17 | Group Anagrams | MEDIUM | 76.6 | 71% | Array · Hash Table · String |
| 18 | Two Sum | EASY | 74.8 | 56% | Array · Hash Table |
| 19 | Number of Islands | MEDIUM | 73.5 | 62% | Array · Depth-First Search · Breadth-First Search |
| 20 | One Edit Distance | MEDIUM | 72.9 | 34% | Two Pointers · String |
| 21 | Valid Parentheses | EASY | 72.9 | 42% | String · Stack |
| 22 | Valid Palindrome II | EASY | 72.2 | 43% | Two Pointers · String · Greedy |
| 23 | Interval List Intersections | MEDIUM | 69.9 | 73% | Array · Two Pointers · Line Sweep |
| 24 | Trapping Rain Water | HARD | 67.4 | 65% | Array · Two Pointers · Dynamic Programming |
| 25 | Find All Anagrams in a String | MEDIUM | 65.4 | 52% | Hash Table · String · Sliding Window |
| 26 | Min Stack | MEDIUM | 65.4 | 56% | Stack · Design |
| 27 | Longest Palindromic Substring | MEDIUM | 65.4 | 36% | Two Pointers · String · Dynamic Programming |
| 28 | Merge Sorted Array | EASY | 64.4 | 53% | Array · Two Pointers · Sorting |
| 29 | Generate Parentheses | MEDIUM | 62.2 | 77% | String · Dynamic Programming · Backtracking |
| 30 | Design an ATM Machine | MEDIUM | 62.2 | 42% | Array · Greedy · Design |
| 31 | Design Hit Counter | MEDIUM | 59.6 | 69% | Array · Binary Search · Design |
| 32 | Is Subsequence | EASY | 58.2 | 48% | Two Pointers · String · Dynamic Programming |
| 33 | LRU Cache | MEDIUM | 58.2 | 45% | Hash Table · Linked List · Design |
| 34 | Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation | MEDIUM | 58.2 | 55% | Array · Math · Stack |
| 35 | Longest Substring with At Most K Distinct Characters | MEDIUM | 56.7 | 49% | Hash Table · String · Sliding Window |
| 36 | Merge Two Sorted Lists | EASY | 56.7 | 67% | Linked List · Recursion |
| 37 | Validate Binary Search Tree | MEDIUM | 56.7 | 34% | Tree · Depth-First Search · Binary Search Tree |
| 38 | Destination City | EASY | 55.0 | 79% | Array · Hash Table · String |
| 39 | Binary Tree Right Side View | MEDIUM | 55.0 | 67% | Tree · Depth-First Search · Breadth-First Search |
| 40 | Minimum Window Substring | HARD | 55.0 | 45% | Hash Table · String · Sliding Window |
| 41 | Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | EASY | 55.0 | 55% | Array · Dynamic Programming |
| 42 | Reconstruct Itinerary | HARD | 53.2 | 44% | Depth-First Search · Graph · Eulerian Circuit |
| 43 | Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree | MEDIUM | 53.2 | 67% | Tree · Depth-First Search · Binary Tree |
| 44 | Find Duplicate Subtrees | MEDIUM | 53.2 | 60% | Hash Table · Tree · Depth-First Search |
| 45 | Max Consecutive Ones III | MEDIUM | 53.2 | 66% | Array · Binary Search · Sliding Window |
| 46 | Simplify Path | MEDIUM | 53.2 | 48% | String · Stack |
| 47 | Merge k Sorted Lists | HARD | 53.2 | 57% | Linked List · Divide and Conquer · Heap (Priority Queue) |
| 48 | Search in Rotated Sorted Array | MEDIUM | 51.2 | 43% | Array · Binary Search |
| 49 | Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum | HARD | 51.2 | 41% | Dynamic Programming · Tree · Depth-First Search |
| 50 | Median of Two Sorted Arrays | HARD | 51.2 | 44% | Array · Binary Search · Divide and Conquer |
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 Yandex OA. The proctor cannot see it. Screen share cannot detect it. Built by a senior engineer who knows the OA is theater. This is the script.
Get StealthCoder- array61 · 51%
- hash table34 · 29%
- string30 · 25%
- two pointers29 · 24%
- sorting19 · 16%
- sliding window14 · 12%
- dynamic programming13 · 11%
- binary search12 · 10%
- depth first search12 · 10%
- tree12 · 10%
The topic distribution is ruthless about arrays: 61 problems out of 119 are array-based, and when you factor in two-pointers (29), sliding-window (14), and the array-heavy problems like 'Longest Subarray of 1's After Deleting One Element' and 'Subarray Sum Equals K', arrays are the backbone. Hash-tables come second at 34 problems, almost always paired with arrays or strings. Strings and two-pointers round out the core trio. The hard problems are sparse (9 total), so the assessment is testing whether you can execute fundamentals quickly under pressure. That's where StealthCoder becomes your hedge: if you blank on the pattern for 'Permutation in String' or 'Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters' with 15 minutes left, you're not losing the round.
Companies with similar patterns
If you prepped for Yandex, these companies recycle ~60% of the same topics.
You've seen the list.
Now make sure you pass Yandex.
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 by a senior engineer who knows the OA is theater. This is the script. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Yandex interview FAQ
Should I prioritize array or hash-table problems for Yandex?+
Array first. 61 of the 119 problems involve arrays, often combined with two-pointers or sliding-window. Once you're solid on array manipulation, move to hash-tables, which appear in 34 problems and usually complement array or string problems.
How many medium-difficulty problems should I solve before the OA?+
Yandex's assessment is 60 percent medium problems. Aim to solve at least 40 to 50 medium problems across arrays, hash-tables, and strings. Focus on patterns that repeat: sliding-window substrings, prefix sums, and hash-map counters.
What should I do if I haven't drilled dynamic programming?+
It's only 13 problems, lower priority. But 'Longest Subarray of 1's After Deleting One Element' combines array, DP, and sliding-window, so if it comes up, you'll need the pattern. DP is a hedge topic here, not core.
Is two-pointers worth grinding separately?+
Yes. It appears in 29 problems and overlaps heavily with arrays and strings. Problems like 'Valid Palindrome', 'String Compression', and 'Find K Closest Elements' all use the pattern. Spend a few days on two-pointer fundamentals.
How much should I worry about the 9 hard problems?+
Not much. Hard problems are only 7.5 percent of the pool. Your score depends on nailing the medium problems fast and cleanly. If a hard problem appears and you're unsure, treat it as a hedge moment.