Merging Overlapping Time Series | Dataford Interview Questions

Nokia NetAct exports telemetry as timestamped samples. Given two time-series datasets sorted by strictly increasing timestamp, merge them into one sorted dataset without duplicate timestamps. If both datasets contain the same timestamp, use the sample from series_b.

Formal Specification

Implement merge_time_series(series_a, series_b). Each input is a list of records represented as [timestamp, value], where timestamp is an integer and value is numeric. Return a new list containing every timestamp from either input exactly once, sorted in ascending timestamp order. Do not interpolate missing timestamps, alter values, or mutate either input list.

Constraints

Both inputs are sorted by strictly increasing timestamp
0 <= len(series_a), len(series_b) <= 10^5
Timestamps are unique within each input
-10^12 <= timestamp <= 10^12
Values are integers or floating-point numbers

Function Signature

def merge_time_series(series_a, series_b):

Your question is Merging Overlapping Time Series. 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

Formal Specification

Constraints

Both inputs are sorted by strictly increasing timestamp
0 <= len(series_a), len(series_b) <= 10^5
Timestamps are unique within each input
-10^12 <= timestamp <= 10^12
Values are integers or floating-point numbers

Function Signature

def merge_time_series(series_a, series_b):

Your question is Merging Overlapping Time Series. 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.