Binary Searchmedium45 minBackend Engineer

Queue Minimum Feasible Throughput

Backend Engineer signal: binary search on answer + monotonic predicate in a job queue context. This is a ProdMatch-owned backend engineer drill, framed as a May 2026 Zerodha Async Platform simulation, not a copied platform question.

Company context

Zerodha · Async Platform

Freshness

May 2026

Product surface

job queue

ProdMatch interview simulation based on product-team patterns; not a claim of a real company question.

Question

For job queue, choose the minimum processing rate so all jobs finish before deadline. Each worker can process rate units per minute, rounded up per item.

Input

Work item sizes and deadline minutes.

Output

Minimum integer rate.

Constraints

1 <= items.length <= 200000
1 <= item size <= 1e9
Deadline is at least items.length.

Concepts

idempotency
queues
rate limiting
binary search on answer
monotonic predicate

sizes [3,6,7,11], deadline=8 -> 4

Approach

Try framing your own approach first. The 30 seconds you think before peeking is where learning happens.

Clean Solution

Reveal the approach first.

How well did you understand?

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Common Mistakes

Use low + (high - low) // 2 to avoid overflow.
The predicate must be monotonic or binary search is invalid.

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