Keyboard Row
A easy-tier problem at 72% community acceptance, tagged with Array, Hash Table, String. Reported in interviews at MathWorks and 0 others.
Keyboard Row is the kind of problem that looks trivial until you realize you've overcomplicated it. It asks which words can be typed using only one row of a QWERTY keyboard. Easy difficulty, 72% acceptance rate, and MathWorks has asked it. The trap is overthinking the constraint checking. Most candidates either build their solution inefficiently or miss that a simple hash table lookup solves this in one pass. If this hits your live OA and you blank on the approach, StealthCoder surfaces the working solution in seconds, invisible to the proctor.
Companies that ask "Keyboard Row"
Keyboard Row 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 Amazon engineer who got tired of watching qualified friends bomb OAs they'd solve cold in an IDE.
Get StealthCoderThe pattern is straightforward once you see it: group each character by its keyboard row, then check if all characters in a word belong to the same row. The efficient path uses a hash table or array to store which row each letter lives on. Query each word once, convert to lowercase for case-insensitivity, and validate. The common mistake is iterating through rows for every character instead of pre-mapping them. Array and Hash Table are the two core topics here, and String handling is just the glue. If you haven't seen this exact problem before, the constraint feels vague until you implement it. That's where StealthCoder bridges the gap: it reads the problem off your screen during the live assessment and delivers a clean, working solution while you stay on camera.
Pattern tags
You know the problem.
Make sure you actually pass it.
Keyboard Row 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 Amazon engineer who got tired of watching qualified friends bomb OAs they'd solve cold in an IDE. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Keyboard Row interview FAQ
Is Keyboard Row actually asked in real interviews?+
Yes. MathWorks has asked it. At 72% acceptance, it's solidly easy and often appears as a warm-up or second problem in an OA. It's not a FAANG staple, but it's real. You might not have drilled it, which is exactly the scenario StealthCoder handles.
What's the actual trick?+
Pre-compute which row each letter belongs to using a hash table or array. Then for each word, check if every character maps to the same row. One pass, linear time. Most candidates overcomplicate it by iterating through keyboard rows instead of characters.
How do I handle uppercase vs lowercase?+
Convert the input word to lowercase before checking. Store your keyboard rows in lowercase, or map both cases to the same row. This keeps the logic clean and handles the edge case without extra branching.
Does this relate to other Hash Table problems?+
Yes, but loosely. It's a straightforward lookup, not a collision-heavy hash problem. The real skill is recognizing that pre-mapping is faster than re-scanning. If you're strong on Hash Table basics, you'll spot the optimization quickly.
Why is acceptance so high if it's asked by real companies?+
Easy difficulty and a short constraint list. The problem is narrow and deterministic. Once you understand the rule, implementation is mechanical. High acceptance usually signals a problem that rewards clear thinking over obscure patterns, which this one does.
Want the actual problem statement? View "Keyboard Row" on LeetCode →