Graviton SWE Interview Experience: Packet Receiver and Connected Components
Question Details
I recently interviewed with
Graviton Research Capital for the Software Engineer role. The first round consisted of two problem-solving questions focusing on data structures and graph theory. T
Full Details
I recently interviewed with
Graviton Research Capital for the Software Engineer role. The first round consisted of two problem-solving questions focusing on data structures and graph theory. The interview lasted around 60 minutes. ## Question 1 – Packet Receiver / Ordered Commit A sender transmits packets to a receiver. * Each packet has a serial number. * Serial numbers are positive and strictly increasing for consecutive packets. * Packets may arrive out of order. * The receiver must commit packets strictly in order. * The first packet starts from 1001. * Additionally, no more than 10 packets can be missing in a row (i.e., packet P and P + 10 will never be reordered). You need to design a Receiver class with a function: receive(packet_number) that processes arriving packets and commits packets whenever possible.
Approach 1. Track the next expected packet number (next_commit). 2. Maintain a data structure storing received but uncommitted packets (a set or boolean array). 3. When a packet arrives: * Mark it as received. * If its number equals next_commit, we attempt to commit packets sequentially. 4. Continue committing while the next expected packet exists in the received set. Because the problem guarantees at most 10 packets can be missing, the buffer size remains small and operations stay efficient.
Time complexity per packet:
O(1) amortized. --- ## Question 2 – Connected Components with N Nodes and M Edges Given: * N nodes * M undirected edges * No self-loops * No multiple edges Find: *
Maximum possible number of connected components *
Minimum possible number of connected components ### Maximum Connected Components To maximize components, we should concentrate edges within a small subset of nodes while leaving the rest isolated. Let X be the number of nodes used to place the edges. A component of size X can contain at most: X(X-1)/2 edges We find the largest X such that X(X-1)/2 ≤ M Then: * One component uses these X nodes * Remaining nodes remain isolated Maximum components: N - X + 1 --- ### Minimum Connected Components To minimize components, we should use edges to connect as many nodes as possible. Each edge can reduce components by at most 1. Starting with N isolated nodes: Minimum components: max(1, N - M)
Explanation: * If we have enough edges to connect all nodes → one component. * Otherwise each edge merges two components. ---
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About Graviton Research Capital Interview Reports
This question was reported by a candidate who interviewed at Graviton Research Capital. LeakCode aggregates interview reports from 10+ sources, including 1Point3Acres, Glassdoor, LeetCode Discuss, Blind, Reddit, Indeed, and Nowcoder. Each report is translated where necessary, deduplicated against existing entries, and tagged by company, role, round type, and reporting date.
Use this question as one calibration data point, not a memorization target. Companies typically rotate their question pools every 2-4 months; the exact wording of a 2024 question may differ from what you encounter today. The underlying pattern, difficulty level, and follow-up depth at Graviton Research Capital are the higher-signal extractions to take from this report.
For broader preparation context, the Graviton Research Capital interview process typically includes a recruiter screen, one or two technical phone screens, and a 4-5 round on-site loop covering coding, system design (at L4+ levels), and behavioral. Reports tagged on LeakCode show the round-by-round distribution and typical difficulty calibration. To browse questions filtered by round type and seniority, use the company hub linked above.
How To Practice This Type of Question
Solve similar problems on LeetCode under timed conditions (25-35 minutes per medium difficulty). The goal is pattern recognition: recognize the underlying technique (sliding window, two-pointer, BFS, memoized recursion, etc.) within 60-90 seconds of reading. Strong candidates verbalize their hypothesis out loud before coding, then iterate based on feedback. Weak candidates dive into implementation immediately, lose time on the wrong approach, and run out of time for follow-ups.
Companies update their question pools every 2-4 months. The exact wording of any given question may have been retired by the time you interview. Focus your prep on the pattern, not the specific problem. The patterns that appear in Graviton Research Capital reports consistently are the ones worth investing in; one-off niche problems are not.
During Your Graviton Research Capital Round
Apply the standard interview round template: clarify requirements (2-3 minutes), state your approach out loud and confirm direction with the interviewer (3-5 minutes), code with narration (15-25 minutes), test with concrete examples including edge cases (5 minutes), discuss optimization or trade-offs if time permits (5 minutes). This template is universally accepted across FAANG and adjacent companies; deviating from it produces weaker interviewer feedback signal.
The single most predictive failure mode in Graviton Research Capital reports tagged "no hire": not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers are explicitly trained to weight this. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's written notes.