HackingaGoogleInterviewHandout2

CourseDescription Instructors:BillJacobsandCurtisFonger Time:January1215,5:006:30PMin32124 Website:http://courses.csail.mit.edu/iap/interview ClassicQuestion#4:Reversingthewordsinastring Writeafunctiontoreversetheorderofwordsinastringinplace. Answer:Reversethestringbyswappingthefirstcharacterwiththelastcharacter, thesecondcharacterwiththesecondtolastcharacter,andsoon.Then,gothrough thestringlookingforspaces,sothatyoufindwhereeachofthewordsis.Reverse eachofthewordsyouencounterbyagainswappingthefirstcharacterwiththelast character,thesecondcharacterwiththesecondtolastcharacter,andsoon. Sorting Often,aspartofasolutiontoaquestion,youwillneedtosortacollectionof elements.ThemostimportantthingtorememberaboutsortingisthatittakesO(n logn)time.(Thatis,thefastestsortingalgorithmforarbitrarydatatakesO(nlogn) time.) MergeSort: Mergesortisarecursivewaytosortanarray.First,youdividethearrayinhalfand recursivelysorteachhalfofthearray.Then,youcombinethetwohalvesintoa sortedarray.Soamergesortfunctionwouldlooksomethinglikethis: int[] mergeSort(int[] array) { if (array.length <= 1) return array; int middle = array.length / 2; int firstHalf = mergeSort(array[0..middle - 1]); int secondHalf = mergeSort( array[middle..array.length - 1]); return merge(firstHalf, secondHalf); } Thealgorithmreliesonthefactthatonecanquicklycombinetwosortedarraysinto asinglesortedarray.Onecandosobykeepingtwopointersintothetwosorted

arrays.Onerepeatedlyaddsthesmallerofthetwonumberspointedtotothenew arrayandadvancesthepointer. Quicksort: Quicksortisanothersortingalgorithm.IttakesO(n^2)timeintheworstcaseand O(nlogn)expectedtime. Tosortanarrayusingquicksort,onefirstselectsarandomelementofthearrayto bethe"pivot".Onethendividesthearrayintotwogroups:agroupofelementsthat arelessthanthepivotandagroupofelementsthataregreaterthanthepivot.After this,therewillbeanarrayconsistingofelementslessthanthepivot,followedbythe pivot,followedbyelementsgreaterthanthepivot.Then,onerecursivelysortsthe portionofthearraybeforethepivotandtheportionofthearrayafterthepivot.A quicksortfunctionwouldlooklikethis: void quicksort(int[] array, int startIndex, int endIndex) { if (startIndex >= endIndex) { // Base case (array segment has 1 or 0 elements } else { int pivotIndex = partition(array, startIndex, endIndex); quicksort(array, startIndex, pivotIndex - 1); quicksort(array, pivotIndex + 1, endIndex); } } Quicksortistypicallyveryfastinpractice,butrememberthatithasO(n^2)worst caserunningtime,sobesuretomentionanothersortingalgorithm,suchasmerge sort,ifyouneedguaranteedO(nlogn)runningtime. OrderStatistics: Sometimes,aninterviewerwillaskyoutodescribeanalgorithmtoidentifythekth smallestelementinanarrayofnelements.Todothis,youselectarandompivot andpartitionthearrayasyouwouldinthequicksortalgorithm.Then,basedonthe indexofthepivotelement,youknowwhichhalfofthearraythedesiredelementlies in.Forexample,sayk=15andn=30,andafteryouselectyourpivotandpartition thearray,thefirsthalfhas10elements(thehalfbeforethepivot).Youknowthat thedesiredelementisthe4thsmallestelementinthelargerhalf.Toidentifythe element,youpartitionthesecondhalfofthearrayandcontinuerecursively.The reasonthatthisisnotO(nlogn)isthattherecursivepartitioncallisonlyonone halfofthearray,sotheexpectedrunningtimeisn+(n/2)+(n/4)+(n/8)+...= O(n).

Notethatfindingthemedianofanarrayisaspecialcaseofthiswherek=n/2. Thisisaveryimportantpoint,asaninterviewerwilloftenaskyoutofindawayto getthemedianofanarrayofnumbers. Question:NearestNeighbor Sayyouhaveanarraycontaininginformationregardingnpeople.Eachpersonis describedusingastring(theirname)andanumber(theirpositionalonganumber line).Eachpersonhasthreefriends,whicharethethreepeoplewhosenumberis nearesttheirown.Describeanalgorithmtoidentifyeachperson'sthreefriends. Goodanswer:Sortthearrayinascendingorderofthepeople'snumber.Foreach person,checkthethreepeopleimmediatelybeforeandafterthem.Theirthree friendswillbeamongthesesixpeople.ThisalgorithmtakesO(nlogn)time,since sortingthepeopletakesthatmuchtime. LinkedLists Alinkedlistisabasicdatastructure.Eachnodeinalinkedlistcontainsanelement andapointertothenextnodeinthelinkedlist.Thelastnodehasa"null"pointerto indicatethatthereisnonextnode.Alistmayalsobedoublylinked,inwhichcase eachnodealsohasapointertothepreviousnode.Ittakesconstant(O(1))timeto addanodetoorremoveanodefromalinkedlist(ifyoualreadyhaveapointerto thatnode).IttakesO(n)timetolookupanelementinalinkedlistifyoudon't alreadyhaveapointertothatnode. ClassicQuestion#5:CycleinaLinkedList Howcanonedeterminewhetherasinglylinkedlisthasacycle? Goodanswer:Keeptrackoftwopointersinthelinkedlist,andstartthematthe beginningofthelinkedlist.Ateachiterationofthealgorithm,advancethefirst pointerbyonenodeandthesecondpointerbytwonodes.Ifthetwopointersare everthesame(otherthanatthebeginningofthealgorithm),thenthereisacycle.If apointereverreachestheendofthelinkedlistbeforethepointersarethesame, thenthereisnocycle.Actually,thepointersneednotmoveoneandtwonodesata time;itisonlynecessarythatthepointersmoveatdifferentrates.ThistakesO(n) time.Thisisatrickyanswerthatinterviewersreallylikeforsomereason. Okayanswer:Foreverynodeyouencounterwhilegoingthroughthelistonebyone, putapointertothatnodeintoaO(1)lookuptimedatastructure,suchasahashset. Then,whenyouencounteranewnode,seeifapointertothatnodealreadyexistsin yourhashset.ThisshouldtakeO(n)time,butalsotakesO(n)space.

Okayanswer:Gothroughtheelementsofthelist."Mark"eachnodethatyoureach. Ifyoureachamarkednodebeforereachingtheend,thelisthasacycle;otherwise,it doesnot.ThisalsotakesO(n)time. Notethatthisquestionistechnicallyillposed.Anordinarylinkedlistwillhaveno cycles.Whattheyactuallymeanisforyoutodeterminewhetheryoucanreacha cyclefromanodeinagraphconsistingofnodesthathaveatmostoneoutgoing edge. StacksandQueues Aninterviewerwillprobablyexpectyoutoknowwhatqueuesandstacksare. Queuesareabstractdatatypes.Aqueueisjustlikealineofpeopleatanamusement park.Aqueuetypicallyhastwooperations:enqueueanddequeue.Enqueueingan elementaddsittothequeue.Dequeueinganelementremovesandreturnsthe elementthatwasaddedleastrecently.AqueueissaidtobeFIFO(firstin,firstout). Astackisanotherabstractdatatypewithtwocommonoperations:pushandpop. Pushinganelementaddsittothestack.Poppinganelementremovesandreturns theelementthatwasaddedmostrecently.AstackissaidtobeLIFO(lastin,first out).Astackoperateslikeastackofcafeteriatrays. HashTables Ahashtableisusedtoassociatekeyswithvalues,sothateachkeyisassociatedwith oneorzerovalues.Eachkeyshouldbeabletocomputea"hash"function,which takessomeorallofitsinformationanddigestsitintoasingleinteger.Thehash tableconsistsofanarrayofhashbuckets.Toaddakeyvaluepairtoahashtable, onecomputesthekey'shashcodeandusesittodecidethehashbucketinwhichthe mappingbelongs.Forexample,ifthehashvalueis53andthereare8hashbuckets, onemightusethemodfunctiontodecidetoputthemappinginbucket53mod8, whichisbucket5.Tolookupthevalueforagivenkey,onecomputesthebucketin whichthekeywouldresideandcheckswhetherthekeyisthere;ifso,onecan returnthevaluestoredinthatbucket.Toremovethemappingforagivenkey,one likewiselocatesthekey'smappingandremovesitfromtheappropriatebucket. Notethatthehashfunctionisgenerallydecidedoninadvance. Aproblemariseswhentwokeyshashtothesamebucket.Thiseventiscalleda "collision".Thereareseveralwaystodealwiththis.Onewayistostorealinkedlist ofkeyvaluepairsforeachbucket. Insertion,removal,andlookuptakeexpectedO(1)time,providedthatthehash functionissufficiently"random".Intheworstcase,eachkeyhashestothesame bucket,soeachoperationtakesO(n)time.Inpractice,itiscommontoassume constanttime.

Hashtablescanoftenbeusedassmallercomponentsofanswerstoquestions.In ourexperience,someinterviewerslikehashtablesandsomedon't.Thatis,some interviewerswillallowyoutoassumeconstanttime,whileotherswillnot.Ifyou wanttouseahashtable,werecommendsubtlytryingtofigureoutwhichcategory yourinterviewerbelongsto.Youmight,forexample,saysomethinglike,"Well,I couldusedahashtable,butthatwouldhavebadworstcaseperformance."The interviewermightthenindicatethathe'llallowyoutouseahashtable. ClassicQuestion#6:Datastructureforanagrams GivenanEnglishwordintheformofastring,howcanyouquicklyfindallvalid anagramsforthatstring(allvalidrearrangementsofthelettersthatformvalid Englishwords)?Youareallowedtoprecomputewhateveryouwanttoandstore whateveryouoptionallyprecomputeondisk. Answer:Wewanttouseahashtable!Ifyourinterviewerreallyhateshashtables (whichtheysometimesdoforsomereason),youcanuseatreeinstead.Butlet's assumeyoucanuseahashtable.Thenfortheprecomputingstep,gothrougheach wordinthedictionary,sortthelettersofthewordinalphabeticalorder(so "hacking"wouldbecome"acghikn")andaddthesortedlettersasakeyinthetable andtheoriginalwordasoneofthevaluesinalistofvaluesforthatkey.For example,theentryfor"opst"wouldbethelist["opts","post","stop","pots","tops", "spot"].Then,wheneveryougetastring,yousimplysortthelettersofthestring andlookupthevalueinthehashtable.TherunningtimeisO(nlogn)forsorting thestring(whichisrelativelysmall)andapproximatelyO(1)forthelookupinthe hashtable. Thereareseveralotherpossibleanswerstothisquestion,butwefeelthatthe answeraboveisconsideredanoptimalsolution. Question:FactorialZeros Withoutusingacalculator,howmanyzerosareattheendof"100!"?(that's 100*99*98*...*3*2*1) Answer:Whatyoudon'twanttodoisstartmultiplyingitallout!Thetrickis rememberingthatthenumberofzerosattheendofanumberisequaltothe numberoftimes"10"(or"2*5")appearswhenyoufactorthenumber.Therefore thinkabouttheprimefactorizationof100!andhowmany2sand5sthereare. Thereareabunchmore2sthan5s,sothenumberof5sisalsothenumberof10sin thefactorization.Thereisone5foreveryfactorof5inourfactorialmultiplication (1*2*...*5*...*10*...*15*...)andanextra5for25,50,75,and100.Thereforewehave 20+4=24zerosattheendof100!.