Log Parsing Script | Dataford Interview Questions

Given a file of logs, write a Python script that parses it, converts each log entry into a dictionary, and returns the relevant information.

Asked in the loop coding stage. Think aloud while coding; interviewers then added edge cases and asked for code changes.

Input and Output

Implement parse_logs(log_text). The input is one string containing newline-separated records. Each valid record has the format timestamp|level|service|message. Return a list of dictionaries with keys timestamp, level, service, and message. Ignore blank or malformed lines. Preserve additional | characters inside the message.

Constraints

1 <= number of input lines <= 1000
Each line contains text and may be malformed
Valid records contain exactly four required logical fields
Additional pipe characters are allowed in the message field
The output preserves the order of valid input records

Function Signature

def parse_logs(log_text):

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