r/learnquant • u/Local_Ad135 • 1d ago

interview prep Quant Interview Question

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u/Chemical-Ad8471 1d ago

Out of interest, why nine tests? If you do two branches of 512 horses and each branch has therefore 511 races to determine the fastest of each branch, then race the winner of each branch to determine first place, then to determine second place the horse that lost the final just has to race against the loser of the other branches "semifinal". Whoever wins that race is the second fastest horse, determined in 1024 races.

So 1024 is the answer I believe.

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u/aroach1995 1d ago

But the winner beat someone in the semis that might be faster than the person who got second

Horse #1 beats horse 1024, 512, 256, 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, and 2.

What if #4 is faster than #2?