Interview Task: Airport Parking Position Allocation

Context

At airports, airplanes require a parking position during their ground time (between arrival and departure).
For example, an aircraft arriving at Istanbul Airport at 12:00 and departing at 14:00 must be allocated a parking position for the duration of its stay.

Problem Statement

When processing a park position request (ParkPositionRequest):

1. If the requested parking position is available, allocate it to the aircraft.
2. If the requested parking position is not available (due to a time conflict), the system should check the other available park positions and allocate the nearest available one.
3. If no parking positions are available, the system should return an empty value (Optional.empty).

Constraints

• A parking position can host only one aircraft at a given time.
• An aircraft can occupy at most one parking position.
• Overlapping (time-conflicting) requests cannot be assigned to the same parking position.
• If multiple positions are available, the nearest one (based on the location value) should be selected.

Task

• You are provided with the InterviewQuestion.java file.
• Your task is to complete the question1 method according to the rules above.
• A ready-to-use test class TestCaseQ1.java will automatically validate your solution.
• If all test cases pass successfully, your implementation is considered correct.

Technical Details

• JDK 11+
• JUnit 5
• Lombok (optional, may be used)