Group and Sort Pins by Window | Dataford Interview Questions

Given an array of pin objects, write a function to group them by category and sort them by popularity within a specific time window.

Use group_pins_by_category(pins, start_time, end_time). Each pin is a dictionary with id, category, popularity, and integer timestamp fields. Include pins whose timestamps fall inclusively within the window. Return a dictionary mapping each category to a list of its matching pin objects, sorted by descending popularity; break popularity ties by ascending id.

Constraints

0 <= len(pins) <= 500
Each pin contains integer id, popularity, and timestamp fields
Each pin contains a string category field
start_time <= end_time
Pin IDs are unique
Return original pin dictionaries without modifying them

Function Signature

def group_pins_by_category(pins, start_time, end_time):

Your question is Group and Sort Pins by Window. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.

Problem

Given an array of pin objects, write a function to group them by category and sort them by popularity within a specific time window.

Constraints

0 <= len(pins) <= 500
Each pin contains integer id, popularity, and timestamp fields
Each pin contains a string category field
start_time <= end_time
Pin IDs are unique
Return original pin dictionaries without modifying them

Function Signature

def group_pins_by_category(pins, start_time, end_time):

Your question is Group and Sort Pins by Window. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.