Done this time Roblox The overall feeling of DS Summer Intern OA is completely different from the traditional data post online test. It is more like "interviewing while playing". The whole process is divided into four parts: interactive game + behavioral test + coding. The total duration is about a little over 2 hours. The intensity is not low, but the experience is quite fresh. Below I will break it down in detail by module, and basically explain the core test points and question-answering ideas clearly.
Part 1 & 2: Interactive Game Test
This part is actually the most distinctive part of Roblox OA and the easiest place to widen the gap. Not regular questions, but two simulation games.
Factory Simulation Game
This is a very classic "simulation + optimization" question in Roblox. The whole thing is more like making a simplified version of the production system decision-making.
Tasks you need to complete include:
- Develop overall production plan
- Decide which products to produce and their respective quantities
- Allocating raw materials with limited resources
The difficulty lies in: limited resources + complex combination + high time pressure, so you must try and optimize at the same time.
My core thinking at the time was:
First, quickly identify bottleneck resources, which are the most scarce raw materials that limit overall production capacity. Because this resource basically determines your output upper limit, all subsequent optimization must revolve around it.
The specific steps are:
First, simply estimate the consumption rate of various raw materials, find out which one is most likely to be "stuck", and then allocate it to products with higher profits first. On this basis, we will adjust the product mix.
During the optimization process, I adopted a relatively intuitive heuristic method, such as using a method similar to "output × 2 + input ÷ 2" to quickly determine the approximate benefits of different solutions and avoid precise calculations at each step, thus improving trial and error efficiency.
The overall rhythm is: quickly come up with a plan → see the results → make adjustments in small steps → continue iteration.
In the end, I got about 180k points and submitted a short description explaining my optimization logic.
Build-a-Car Game
This section is more "gamified", but the essence is still to examine decision making.
You need to:
- Assemble a car from different components
- Deal with different terrains: bridges, water, missiles, acid, etc.
- Design as many "passable" cars as possible within the time limit
The key points are:
- Each component has different capabilities
- Make a reasonable combination (trade-off)
- While pursuing “diversity + feasibility”
This question is actually looking at:
- Combination optimization capabilities
- Creative problem solving
- Is it possible to quickly summarize “which combination is effective?”
When doing it, I clearly feel:
You don’t need a perfect design, but you need to try more + quickly summarize the rules
Behavioral multiple choice questions
This section is 25 minutes long and has 23 questions in total. Each question will give a workplace scenario and provide 4 approaches, allowing you to choose an optimal solution and a worst solution. Common situations include: whether you should point out problems in the process, what to do if you have different opinions from colleagues, whether you should take the initiative to promote improvements, etc.
In summary, it's more like a personality and workplace judgment test, with no particularly "standard" correct answers. But there is an obvious pattern: the worst options are usually not proactive enough, such as choosing to avoid the problem, not communicating at all, or shifting the responsibility to others.
When answering questions, you can give priority to those options that reflect ownership, communication awareness and teamwork. Even if you are not sure which one is the best, if you first eliminate obviously negative or inactive answers, the accuracy rate will usually not be too low.
Coding (CodeSignal)
Coding is a total of 50 minutes, 4 questions, completed on CodeSignal, supports Python or R.
Topic 1: Efficient transportation
A warehouse manager needs to schedule a shipment to fill a truck. All products in the warehouse are packed in boxes of the same size, and each box contains a certain number of units of each product. Given the maximum number of boxes that a truck can load, calculate the maximum total number of product units that a truck can transport for any product combination.
Example:
- Number of boxes available for each product:
Boxes = [1, 2, 3] - Number of units per box of each product:
UnitsPerBox = [3, 2, 1] - Truck capacity:
TruckSize = 3 - Maximum number of transportable units:
3 + 2 + 2 = 7(Select 1 box of product with 3 units + 2 boxes of product with 2 units)
Topic 2: Newspaper layout
You need to format text for newspaper pages. The input format is as follows:
Paragraphs: Paragraph array, each paragraph consists of word array;Aligns: Paragraph alignment array, each element is"LEFT"(left aligned) or"RIGHT"(right aligned);Width: The maximum number of characters allowed per line of text (excluding borders).
Typesetting requirements:
- The words in each paragraph must be separated by spaces in order and displayed completely;
- Each line contains as many words as possible, ensuring that the line length does not exceed
Width, if exceeded, wrap; - If there are extra spaces in the line: add trailing spaces after the word when aligned to the left, and leading spaces before the word when aligned to the right;
- The final output needs to be added on all edges by
*Composed of borders (borders are not included in theWidth).
Returns a string array of newspaper pages that have been typeset.
Topic 3: Magic number pairs
In the wizarding world, a gem can transform one number into another by exchanging up to two digits. Given an array of numbersNumbers, please count the number of different index pairs (i, j) that meet the following conditions:
- Satisfy
0 ≤ i < j < numbers.length; - No. 1 in the array
INumber andJNumbers, which can be converted into each other by exchanging up to two digits (including no exchange, that is, the numbers themselves are equal).
Example:
- Enter
Numbers = [1, 23, 156, 1650, 651, 165, 32], the output is3:23↔32(swap two digits)156↔651(exchange1And6)156↔165(exchange6And5)
- Enter
Numbers = [123, 321, 123], the output is3:321↔123(exchange1And3)123(Index 2) ↔123（索引 0，无需交换）123(Index 2) ↔321(exchange3And1)
Topic 4: Digital square puzzle
You need to solve a number square array puzzle, the rules are as follows:
- Square matrix structure: Each small square matrix is 4×4 in size, containing all integers from 1 to 16, in which exactly one number is missing, use
"?"Express. - Large matrix storage: All 4×4 small square matrices are stored side by side in a large matrix
Mat, the large matrix size is4 × (4 × n),inNIs the total number of small square arrays. - Core mission:
- Complete missing values: Traverse each 4×4 small square matrix, calculate the missing numbers (the sum of 1~16 is 136, you can get it by subtracting the sum of the existing numbers in the square matrix from 136), and
"?"Replace with this number. - Reorder square matrix: Sort all small square matrices in ascending order according to the missing values of each small square matrix. If two small square matrices have the same missing values, their relative order in the original large matrix is maintained (stable sorting).
- Output results: Re-join the sorted small square matrices into
4 × (4 × n)The large matrix format is returned.
- Complete missing values: Traverse each 4×4 small square matrix, calculate the missing numbers (the sum of 1~16 is 136, you can get it by subtracting the sum of the existing numbers in the square matrix from 136), and
A more stable OA preparation idea
If you have just received Roblox's OA, or are short on time and haven't figured out the interactive game part yet, you can consider our OA ancillary services . We have instructors with North American/domestic DS background who are familiar with gamified OA such as Roblox. They can give you real-time tips on ideas, help analyze decision-making points in the game, or directly optimize the coding part through ideas/code. You operate the entire process yourself, which is relatively stable, and we also support the entire process being done on behalf of you. There are two ways. If you talk about your specific situation in advance, you can give a more targeted plan.
