Furthest Building You Can Reach (Heap-based / LeetCode 1642)

Phone ScreenZipLast reported September 2025Medium Frequency
Reported
4× across candidate reports
First seen
February 2025
Last reported
September 2025
Reported outcome
mixed

Problem Overview

The phone-screen coding problem. Four reports. Three name it as LeetCode 1642, and two of those name a heap (one calls it the regret heap). One candidate who had not seen it said they "wrote until dizzy"; that outcome is not reported. Both reports that say what happened next went…

  • 3 candidate-reported follow-ups — the exact probes interviewers asked, with the trigger for each
  • The rest of the problem statement — full requirements, constraints, and edge cases
  • Approach and trade-offs — what passing candidates did, and the mistakes that sink people
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Verified Source
Every question is reconstructed from multiple independent candidate reports. Verbatim follow-ups, not invented ones.
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Technical claims, formulas, and scale numbers are reviewed against primary sources.
Interviewer Follow-ups
The exact follow-ups reported by candidates, with the trigger that prompts each one — plus the mistakes that sink people.
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