Hi, 

I have an upcoming coding interview with Databricks and they told me to prepared as if they were a 500-point Div 1 TopCoder problem in terms of difficulty. For those not familiar with TopCoder, there are 2 Divisions. Each Division has 3 problemas, usually scoring 250, 500 and 1000. When you sign up you start at division 2 and once you get experienced you start competing at Div 1.

Usually the 500 and 1000 problems of division 2 are respectively the 250 and 500 problems of Div 1.

My rating at TopCoder is yellow but it has been a few years since I don't compete. But I haven't forgotten how to solve problems.

So, I do know how to solve Div 1 500 problems, and I'm always able to come up with a solution by myself, but from my practicing these past few days I wouldn't solce it in time during an interview. I sketch the initial solution fast but I take time debugging things I did wrong.

Honestly, even when I applied to Senior roles at my previous FAANG companies in 2021 the problem wouldn't be at that level of difficulty. Mainly because Div 1 500 problems often require a fair amount of time scoping the ideal solution.

I want to ask if they were accurate saying that this is the level of difficulty I should expect. If so, I'll ask the recruiter more time so I can practice a little bit more. I'm not expecting easy problems as a senior role, no. I'm not saying I don't know how to solve those problems. All I'm saying is that solving a Div 1 medium problem in ~45 minutes after ~6 years of not practicing leaves me a little bit nervous.

I practiced for ICPC algorithmic competitions for 6 years of my life and went to the worls finals twice. So I know I'm good at it and I don't need to spend time learning new topics. I just need to come up quickly with solutions for problems that are not so trivial and code the solution within time.

BUT

After looking LeetCode samples of Databrick problems, they are way easier than Div 1 500 TopCoder problems. They are not easy but I can come up with a solution and code in ~20 minutes. When I practice LeetCode I always a top-scorer. 

So if someone can give me a light whether I should really be expecting that kind of problems where I may have a hard time solving within the interview time, or if they are problems that's feasible to solve during the interview, I appreciate it.

In short: I'm not asking if the problems are easy or hard. All I'm asking is if you think they are problems that only those people with red rating on Codeforces/TopCoder would solve so fast, or if someone experienced, but not a crazy top-ranked algorithm competitor, don't have to worry about it.