The Intuit Online Assessment (OA) has started rolling out again, and the format remains very similar to previous years. Most candidates receive three questions covering coding, SQL, and Bash scripting. We've helped candidates preparing for both Software Engineer and AI Engineer positions, and overall the assessment is quite manageable if you're familiar with the patterns.
Below is a complete breakdown of the three questions together with the solution ideas that helped candidates successfully pass the OA.
Question 1 — Student Arrangement
You are given an integer array where some positions contain 0, representing unknown values, while all other positions already contain fixed integers. Replace every zero with any integer so that the absolute difference between every pair of adjacent elements is at most one.
Return the number of different valid assignments modulo 1,000,000,007.
The problem guarantees that at least one element is non-zero, and the array length is at most 1500.
Solution Idea
The key observation is to process each consecutive block of zeros independently. Existing numbers naturally divide the array into multiple segments, and each segment contributes independently to the final answer. The total number of valid arrays is simply the product of the number of valid assignments for every segment.
For one zero segment, the left and right boundaries (when they exist) are fixed values. This becomes a constrained walk from one endpoint to the other, where every step can increase by one, decrease by one, or remain unchanged.
Since the total displacement between the two endpoints is fixed, we enumerate how many +1, -1, and 0 moves appear in the segment. Every valid distribution can then be counted using multinomial (multiset) combinatorial formulas.
Special attention should be paid to:
- Zero segments at the beginning or end of the array.
- Segments whose endpoints differ too much, making the transition impossible.
- Modulo arithmetic when multiplying segment counts.
Although it looks intimidating initially, this is essentially a combinatorics counting problem combined with interval decomposition.
Question 2 — SQL Capitalization Report
Write a SQL query that groups companies by sector and calculates the total market capitalization for each sector.
The output should contain:
sectortotal_capitalization
The capitalization should:
- Keep exactly two decimal places.
- Display B for billions.
- Display M for millions.
- Sort results alphabetically by sector.
The original capitalization values are stored as strings such as:
- 10B
- 5M
- n/a
Only companies with both a valid sector and a valid capitalization should be included.
Solution Idea
The solution is mostly string parsing followed by aggregation.
- Filter out rows where the sector is NULL or capitalization equals
n/a. - Extract the numeric portion and the unit suffix.
- Convert B to billions and M to millions using multiplication.
- Aggregate with
SUM()grouped by sector. - Format the final result back into B or M with two decimal places.
The biggest pitfalls are unit conversion, preserving decimal precision, and formatting the final output correctly.
Question 3 — Bash Pattern Matching
Given an array of strings, count how many strings contain at least one uppercase English letter, then print the result to STDOUT.
Solution Idea
This is a straightforward Bash scripting question.
Iterate through every string and use a regular expression such as:
[A-Z]
If the pattern matches, increment the counter.
Remember to consider:
- Empty strings
- All lowercase strings
- All uppercase strings
- Mixed-case strings
This question can typically be solved in just a few lines of Bash.
Overall Difficulty
Compared with many other big tech online assessments, the Intuit OA is relatively friendly. The questions are practical and emphasize implementation rather than obscure algorithms.
- Question 1 tests combinatorics and interval decomposition.
- Question 2 focuses on SQL string processing and aggregation.
- Question 3 is basic Bash scripting with regular expressions.
Candidates who have practiced common counting techniques, SQL data transformation, and simple shell scripting should find the assessment very manageable.
Preparing for More Tech Interviews?
Recruiting is still active across many major technology companies, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and TikTok. Besides online assessments, technical phone screens and virtual onsite interviews are also ongoing.
If you're preparing for upcoming interviews, Interview Show provides realistic mock interviews, OA guidance, and one-on-one interview coaching based on actual interview experiences from North American software engineering hiring processes.
Visit our website to learn more:
You can also browse more interview experiences, OA breakdowns, and preparation guides here:
Good luck with your Intuit OA, and hopefully we'll see you in the interview rounds!
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