My Calendar I
A medium-tier problem at 58% community acceptance, tagged with Array, Binary Search, Design. Reported in interviews at Flexport and 1 others.
My Calendar I is a medium-difficulty design problem that's being asked at companies like Flexport and Uber. It tests whether you can build a calendar system that rejects overlapping bookings. The trick isn't just storing events, it's detecting conflicts efficiently as new bookings arrive. With an acceptance rate around 58%, candidates often get the brute-force check working but miss the performance angle. If this problem hits your live assessment and you blank on the indexing strategy, StealthCoder surfaces a working solution in seconds, invisible to the proctor.
Companies that ask "My Calendar I"
My Calendar I 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. Built by an engineer at a top-10 tech company who can solve these problems cold but didn't want to trust himself in a 90-minute screen share.
Get StealthCoderThe core challenge is deciding how to store and query events for overlap. A naive approach checks every existing event against each new one, which works but scales poorly. The insight is recognizing that sorted events make conflict detection much faster: you only need to check if a new booking overlaps with its neighbors in a sorted structure. This is where Binary Search and Ordered Set topics come in, they're the performance optimization. Many candidates code the overlap logic correctly but implement it with an unordered list, tanking their runtime. The Array topic suggests you could solve it simply at first, but Segment Tree hints at advanced candidates going further. StealthCoder is your hedge if the ordering pattern doesn't click during the live session.
Pattern tags
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My Calendar I recycles across companies for a reason. It's medium-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. Built by an engineer at a top-10 tech company who can solve these problems cold but didn't want to trust himself in a 90-minute screen share. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
My Calendar I interview FAQ
Is this really just checking if bookings overlap?+
Yes, at the core. But the catch is doing it fast. Brute force works for small calendars but fails on scale. Once you realize sorted order cuts your search space, the problem clicks. That's why Binary Search and Ordered Set are listed topics.
Do Flexport and Uber actually ask this?+
Yes, both are on the report for this problem. Medium difficulty and design-focused, it fits their screening style. It's not a hard problem, but it's a screening filter for thinking about data structure tradeoffs.
What's the difference between Array and Ordered Set approaches?+
Array is simple: store bookings, check each new one. Ordered Set keeps them sorted, so you binary search for neighbors and only check two events for overlap. Ordered Set is faster as the calendar fills up. The problem tests whether you know when simplicity loses.
When would I actually use Segment Tree here?+
Segment Tree is overkill for single-calendar problems, but it's listed as a topic because some interviewers probe whether you know when to stop optimizing. If you mention it and they ask you to code it, that's a signal you're over-engineering. Stick with Binary Search unless they explicitly ask for it.
Does the 58% acceptance rate mean it's easy?+
No. It means half the candidates who attempt it pass. Most failures are either brute force that times out or off-by-one errors in overlap logic. The design aspect trips up people who only drill algorithm problems and skip system thinking.
Want the actual problem statement? View "My Calendar I" on LeetCode →