The String Shrinker
An easy Python mock interview question on DataDriven, with an AI interviewer who asks follow-up questions and a hire or no-hire decision at the end.
- Domain
- Python
- Difficulty
- easy
- Seniority
- L4
Interview Prompt
A storage layer keeps text compact by collapsing repeated characters: given a string `s`, return its run-length encoding, where each run becomes the character followed by its length. If that wouldn't make the text any shorter, return `s` unchanged.
Summary
Compress the string. Shorter wins.
How This Interview Works
- Read the vague prompt (just like a real interview)
- Ask clarifying questions to the AI interviewer
- Write and run your Python against test cases
- Answer the interviewer's follow-up questions, then get a hire or no-hire decision