Determine if Two Events Have Conflict
A easy-tier problem at 52% community acceptance, tagged with Array, String. Reported in interviews at Goldman Sachs and 0 others.
You're looking at a straightforward problem that shows up in online assessments at Goldman Sachs and similar firms. Two events, two time windows, one question: do they overlap. Sounds simple until you're live on the OA and second-guessing interval logic. The acceptance rate sits around 52%, which means roughly half the candidates either miss the edge cases or overthink the comparison. This is the kind of problem where the obvious approach works, but you need to get the boundary conditions exactly right. If you blank on the exact condition during your assessment, StealthCoder solves it invisible to the proctor and keeps you moving.
Companies that ask "Determine if Two Events Have Conflict"
Determine if Two Events Have Conflict is the kind of problem that decides whether you pass. StealthCoder reads the problem on screen and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Invisible to screen share. The proctor sees nothing. Made by a working FAANG engineer who treats the OA the way companies treat hiring: as a game with rules you should know.
Get StealthCoderThe trick here is nailing the overlap condition without off-by-one errors. Two intervals conflict if one starts before the other ends. The false move is thinking you need to check all four time values separately. Instead, recognize that event1 and event2 conflict if and only if event1.start < event2.end and event2.start < event1.end. The critical detail: whether the boundary itself (e.g., one ends exactly when the other starts) counts as a conflict depends on the problem statement, so read carefully. Most candidates either write redundant comparisons or flip a comparison operator. This is a pattern recognition problem disguised as arithmetic. String parsing is minimal, Array work is just index access. If this shows up live and you freeze on the exact inequality chain, StealthCoder delivers the correct condition in seconds so you can code and move forward.
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Determine if Two Events Have Conflict recycles across companies for a reason. It's easy-tier, and most candidates blank under the timer. StealthCoder is the hedge: an AI overlay invisible during screen share. It reads the problem and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Made by a working FAANG engineer who treats the OA the way companies treat hiring: as a game with rules you should know. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Determine if Two Events Have Conflict interview FAQ
Is this really asked at Goldman Sachs.+
Yes. Goldman Sachs reports asking this problem. It's straightforward, not a curveball, which fits their style of testing basic competence in interval logic without complex data structures.
What's the actual trick.+
The trick is the overlap condition itself. event1 and event2 conflict iff event1.start < event2.end AND event2.start < event1.end. Most candidates either miss this or overthink it with nested if statements.
Why is acceptance only 52%.+
Edge cases and boundary confusion. Candidates often mishandle whether touching intervals count as conflict, or they write the inequality wrong. It's not algorithmic complexity, it's precision on one small detail.
Does this relate to other interview problems.+
Yes. Understanding interval overlap is foundational for merge intervals, meeting rooms, and task scheduling problems. Get this pattern locked now and you'll recognize similar structures later.
How do I prepare for this exact problem.+
Write out the three cases: no overlap, partial overlap, complete overlap. Verify your condition against all three. Then test boundary cases where one event ends exactly when another starts. That's usually where candidates slip up.
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