RejectedTechnical Screen

A Graph Pursuit Problem in the First Round

ZipHQSoftware Engineer · Technical Screen · Sep 2026

The author reports being rejected after a first-round Zip interview focused on a pursuit game in a finite undirected graph. Two players know each other’s locations and can move to an adjacent room or stay still, with the evading player acting first. The question concerned how long capture could take. After the applicant struggled, the interviewer suggested comparing travel distances from the two…

Shared by a candidate · reported Sep 2026. Interview formats change; use it as a guide, not a script.