Binary Searchmedium45 minFrontend Engineer

Autocomplete Minimum Feasible Throughput

Frontend Engineer signal: binary search on answer + monotonic predicate in a search autocomplete context. This is a ProdMatch-owned frontend engineer drill, framed as a May 2026 Amazon Search UX simulation, not a copied platform question.

Company context

Amazon · Search UX

Freshness

May 2026

Product surface

search autocomplete

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

Question

For search autocomplete, choose the minimum processing rate so all queries 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

render scheduling
state graphs
virtualization
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?

Your rating tunes when this problem shows up again.

Common Mistakes

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

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