Interview Intel · Intel

Intel coding interview
questions, leaked.

25 problems reported across recent Intel interviews. Top patterns: array, hash table, string. The list below is what most reported candidates actually saw, plus the honest play if you can't grind all of it.

Founder's read

Intel's assessment hits you with 25 problems weighted heavily toward arrays, hash tables, and strings. You're looking at 10 easy problems to build momentum, 14 medium to drain your time, and one hard problem that'll probably be Trapping Rain Water or a graph traversal. The difficulty curve is forgiving on paper but brutal in execution. If you've done Two Sum and Valid Parentheses a hundred times, you'll move fast. If you blank on sliding-window logic or how to build an LRU Cache under pressure, StealthCoder runs invisibly during your screen share and surfaces a working solution in seconds.

Tracked problems
25
Easy
10/ 40%
Medium
14/ 56%
Hard
1/ 4%

Top problems at Intel

leaked_problems.csv25 rows
#ProblemDiffFrequency
01Trapping Rain WaterHARD
100.0
02Find Consecutive Integers from a Data StreamMEDIUM
100.0
03Maximum Nesting Depth of the ParenthesesEASY
100.0
04Valid ParenthesesEASY
94.4
05Number of IslandsMEDIUM
94.4
06Copy List with Random PointerMEDIUM
87.1
07Two SumEASY
82.5
08Count PrimesMEDIUM
76.9
09Longest Substring Without Repeating CharactersMEDIUM
76.9
10Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock IIMEDIUM
69.6
11LRU CacheMEDIUM
69.6
12Reverse IntegerMEDIUM
69.6
13Maximum SubarrayMEDIUM
59.5
14Climbing StairsEASY
59.5
15Merge Two Sorted ListsEASY
59.5
16Reverse Words in a StringMEDIUM
59.5
17Add Two NumbersMEDIUM
59.5
18Best Time to Buy and Sell StockEASY
59.5
19Palindrome NumberEASY
59.5
20Container With Most WaterMEDIUM
59.5
21Merge Sorted ArrayEASY
59.5
22Rotate ImageMEDIUM
59.5
23Linked List CycleEASY
59.5
24Valid PalindromeEASY
59.5
25Top K Frequent WordsMEDIUM
59.5

Frequencies derived from public community-tagged interview reports. Click a row to view on LeetCode.

The hedge

You have a week, maybe less. You can't out-grind the list above. StealthCoder runs invisibly during the actual Intel OA. The proctor cannot see it. Screen share cannot detect it. Made by an Amazon engineer who watched the leaked-problem repo become an industry secret. He decided you should have it too.

Get StealthCoder
Topic distribution
What this means

Arrays dominate the interview (11 out of 25 problems), so your first week should be maximum subarray patterns, sliding windows, and two-pointer techniques. Hash tables are the second wall (7 problems), mostly appearing alongside strings and linked lists for design questions like LRU Cache and Copy List with Random Pointer. The good news: 40 percent of Intel's problems are easy, meaning a solid two-week grind on array iteration, hash-table lookups, and string manipulation will get you past the filter. The hard problem is a single outlier; don't spend four days on it. Spend one day on Trapping Rain Water to understand monotonic stacks, then shift to the medium problems that actually appear in volume. If you hit a wall on a linked-list plus hash-table hybrid or a dynamic-programming array problem during the live assessment, StealthCoder is your hedge for whatever didn't stick during prep.

Companies with similar patterns

If you prepped for Intel, these companies recycle ~60% of the same topics.

The honest play

You've seen the list. Now make sure you pass Intel.

Memorizing every problem above in a week is a fantasy. StealthCoder is the hedge: an AI overlay that's invisible during screen share. It reads the problem on screen and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Made by an Amazon engineer who watched the leaked-problem repo become an industry secret. He decided you should have it too. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.

Intel interview FAQ

Should I drill arrays first for Intel, or start with hash tables?+

Arrays first. 11 out of 25 problems touch array logic, and most of those are medium difficulty. Hash tables appear in 7 problems, but they usually combine with arrays or linked lists. Master sliding window and two pointers on arrays, then layer in hash tables for deduplication and caching patterns.

Is one hard problem enough to prepare for, or will Intel ask multiple hard questions?+

One hard problem is typical for Intel's assessment. Trapping Rain Water is the reported outlier. Don't chase hard problems for four days. Spend one focused session on monotonic-stack logic, then shift to the 14 medium problems that actually drive your score.

How many string problems should I expect, and what type?+

Six string problems are in the dataset, but most combine with other patterns like stacks (Valid Parentheses, Maximum Nesting Depth) or hash tables (Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters). Drill sliding window plus hash table as a paired skill, not string manipulation in isolation.

Is LRU Cache a must-know for Intel, or is it nice-to-have?+

LRU Cache is a must-know. It's a medium-difficulty design problem that appears in the top 10 and requires fluency with doubly-linked lists, hash tables, and Python's OrderedDict or manual node manipulation. Get it production-ready.

What if I run out of time during the assessment and hit a problem I haven't drilled?+

That's where the math and dynamic-programming problems become a risk. You'll see 6 math problems (Reverse Integer, Count Primes, Climbing Stairs) and 5 DP problems scattered across arrays and linked lists. If a DP or number-theory hybrid surprises you live, you need a backup; that's the real value of prep safety nets.

Problem frequencies sourced from public community-maintained interview-report repos. Problems, ratings, and trademarks are property of LeetCode and Intel. StealthCoder is not affiliated with Intel.