Tesco coding interview
questions, leaked.
4 problems reported across recent Tesco interviews. Top patterns: array, sorting, string. The list below is what most reported candidates actually saw, plus the honest play if you can't grind all of it.
Tesco interviews are lean. You get four problems, all medium difficulty, and they're testing pattern recognition more than breadth. Arrays dominate the set (three of four), with sorting and two-pointers showing up repeatedly. The problems aren't hard on paper, but they're precise. You'll see Merge Intervals, Insert Interval, Decode String, and Meeting Rooms II. That's your universe. If you blank mid-assessment, StealthCoder runs invisibly on screen share and surfaces a working solution in seconds, buying you time to think through the next one.
Top problems at Tesco
| # | Problem | Diff | Frequency | Pass % | Patterns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Merge Intervals | MEDIUM | 100.0 | 49% | Array · Sorting |
| 02 | Insert Interval | MEDIUM | 58.6 | 43% | Array |
| 03 | Decode String | MEDIUM | 58.6 | 61% | String · Stack · Recursion |
| 04 | Meeting Rooms II | MEDIUM | 58.6 | 52% | Array · Two Pointers · Greedy |
Frequencies derived from public community-tagged interview reports. Click a row to view on LeetCode.
You have a week, maybe less. You can't out-grind the list above. StealthCoder runs invisibly during the actual Tesco OA. The proctor cannot see it. Screen share cannot detect it. Built because the OA filter rejects engineers who'd pass the on-site. That's a broken filter. This is the workaround.
Get StealthCoder- array3 · 75%
- sorting2 · 50%
- string1 · 25%
- stack1 · 25%
- recursion1 · 25%
- two pointers1 · 25%
- greedy1 · 25%
- heap priority queue1 · 25%
- prefix sum1 · 25%
Array manipulation is the core skill here. Merge Intervals and Insert Interval are back-to-back interval problems, so mastering one interval pattern unlocks both. Sorting appears in three of four problems, making it your first drill target. Decode String is the outlier, mixing string parsing with stack and recursion, but it's only one problem. The broader pattern distribution (two-pointers, greedy, heap, prefix-sum) suggests Tesco values candidates who can apply multiple approaches to the same problem type rather than just brute force. Meeting Rooms II combines half the toolkit, so that's your hardest-looking problem. When you hit the OA, array and sorting are your safety zones. If you blank on the interval merge logic or heap ordering for Meeting Rooms II, StealthCoder is the hedge for whatever gap remains in your drilling.
Companies with similar patterns
If you prepped for Tesco, these companies recycle ~60% of the same topics.
You've seen the list.
Now make sure you pass Tesco.
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. Built because the OA filter rejects engineers who'd pass the on-site. That's a broken filter. This is the workaround. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Tesco interview FAQ
How many array problems should I solve before a Tesco interview?+
At least 10 to 15 focused on intervals and insertion logic. Since three of Tesco's four problems are arrays (Merge Intervals, Insert Interval, Meeting Rooms II), intervals are non-negotiable. Drill those two problems until you can code them from muscle memory.
Is sorting important for Tesco interviews?+
Yes. Sorting appears in three of four problems (Merge Intervals, Meeting Rooms II, and implicitly in Insert Interval). Understand why sorting enables the interval overlap logic, not just how to call sort(). That's the difference between passing and struggling.
What should I study first for a Tesco OA?+
Arrays and sorting. They're 75% of the signal. Decode String (string, stack, recursion) is one problem. You can afford to drill arrays first, add Decode String in your last few days, and spend remaining time on edge cases in interval problems.
Do I need to master heap and prefix-sum for Tesco?+
Only in context of Meeting Rooms II, which tests them together with arrays and greedy logic. Don't study heap in isolation. Study it as part of solving that one problem. Prefix-sum is also tested only once, so it's a lower priority than arrays and sorting.
How should I approach Decode String differently from the array problems?+
It's a parsing problem, not a data structure rearrangement. You'll use a stack to track nesting levels and recursion to expand encoded substrings. It's the one problem that breaks the array mold, so practice it separately and make sure you understand the stack unwinding logic.