HackingaGoogleInterviewPracticeQuestions

PersonA

Question:Substring

Writeaprogramtodeterminewhetheraninputstringxisasubstringofanother
inputstringy.(Forexample,"bat"isasubstringof"abate",butnotof"beat".)You
mayuseanylanguageyoulike.

SampleAnswer(inC++):

bool hasSubstring(const char *str, const char *find) {

if (str[0] == '\0' && find[0] == '\0')
return true;

for(int i = 0; str[i] != '\0'; i++) {

bool foundNonMatch = false;
for(int j = 0; find[j] != '\0'; j++) {
if (str[i + j] != find[j]) {
foundNonMatch = true;
break;
}
}
if (!foundNonMatch)
return true;
}
return false;
Question:TextEditor

Describeadesignforatexteditor.Describetheclasses,interfaces,andsoonthat
youwoulduseandhowyouwouldorganizethem.

Answer:Therearesomanypossibleanswerstothisproblemthatitwouldbe
difficulttosaythatoneansweristhebest.Looktomakesurethattheymake
classestosetupatexteditor(classesfortheGUI,formatting,saving/loadingfiles,
handlinginput,etc.).Usinginheritance(subclassinginobjectoriented
programming)whereitmakessenseisalsogoodforreusabilityandextendability.
Usingdesignpatters(suchasModelViewController,Listener/Observer,orthe
Singletonpattern)isalsoagoodthing.Themainpointisforthemtogetusedto
thinkingabouthowtheywoulddesignasystem.Mostimportantly,theyneedto
thinkaboutsimplicity,reusability,andextendabilityintheirdesign.

Atexteditordesignquestionisslightlydifferentfromotherdesignquestionsinthat
programmersoftenhavestrongfeelingsabouthowatexteditorshouldwork.
Programmersoftenwanttheabilitytogreatlymodifythebehavioroftheireditor
andwanttobeabletowriteextensionsthataddfunctionalitytoit.Themajortext
editorsusedbyprogrammerstoday,suchasEmacs,Vim,Eclipse,andVisualStudio
havethisability.Adiscussionabouthowtheirtexteditorwouldaccomplishthis
(especiallywithhowthedesignwouldincludeaplaceforextensionsandhowinput
wouldbehandled)wouldbegood.

Question:AxisAlignedRectangles

Describeanalgorithmthattakesanunsortedarrayofaxisalignedrectanglesand
returnsanypairofrectanglesthatoverlaps,ifthereissuchapair.Axisaligned
meansthatalltherectanglesidesareeitherparallelorperpendiculartothexand
yaxis.Youcanassumethateachrectangleobjecthastwovariablesinit:thexy
coordinatesoftheupperleftcornerandthebottomrightcorner.

GoodAnswer:Createasortedarrayofthexcoordinatesoftheleftandrightedgesof
therectangles.Then,usea"scanline"tomovefromlefttorightthroughthe
rectangles.Keepabinarysearchtreecontainingtheycoordinatesofthetopand
bottomedgesoftherectanglesthatoverlapthescanline.Foreachelementofthe
array,checkwhetheritisaleftorrightedge.Ifitisarightedge,removethe
correspondingtopandbottomedgesfromtheBST.Ifitisaleftedge,searchtheBST
forrectanglesthatoverlapthecurrentrectangle;ifthereisone,returntheoverlap.
Then,addtheycoordinatesofthetopandbottomedgesoftherectangletotheBST.
ThesearchtakesO(nlogn)time,sinceittakesO(nlogn)timetosorttherectangles
andeachofthe2niterationstakesO(logn)time.

Question:DoublyLinkedList

Writeafunctiontoremoveasingleoccurrenceofanintegerfromadoublylinked
listifitispresent.Youmayuseanylanguageyoulike.

SampleAnswer(inJava):

void remove(Node head, int value) {

Node cur = head;
while (cur != null) {
if (cur.value == value) {
if (curr.prev != null)
cur.prev.next = cur.next;
if (cur.next != null)
cur.next.prev = cur.prev;
break;
}
cur = cur.next;

}
}

Question:MinimumStack

Describeastackdatastructurethatsupports"push","pop",and"findminimum"
operations."Findminimum"returnsthesmallestelementinthestack.

GoodAnswer:Storetwostacks,oneofwhichcontainsalloftheitemsinthestack
andoneofwhichisastackofminima.Topushanelement,pushitontothefirst
stack.Checkwhetheritissmallerthanthetopitemonthesecondstack;ifso,push
itontothesecondstack.Topopanitem,popitfromthefirststack.Ifitisthetop
elementofthesecondstack,popitfromthesecondstack.Tofindtheminimum
element,simplyreturntheelementonthetopofthesecondstack.Eachoperation
takesO(1)time.

Question:HashTables

Describehowahashtableworks.

Answer:Youcanrefertohandout2foradescriptionofhashtables.

Question:CoinFlippingandDieRolls

Describeanalgorithmtooutputadieroll(arandomnumberfrom1to6),givena
functionthatoutputsacointoss(arandomnumberfrom1to2).Eachpossible
outcomeshouldbeequallylikely.

SampleAnswer:Flipthecointhreetimes,andusethethreecoinflipsasthebitsofa
threebitnumber.Ifthenumberisintherange1to6,outputthenumber.
Otherwise,repeat.Notethatmanyotheranswersarepossible.

Question:TargetSum

Givenanintegerxandanunsortedarrayofintegers,describeanalgorithmto
determinewhethertwoofthenumbersadduptox.(Inthiscase,saythatthe
interviewerhateshashtables.)

GoodAnswer:Sortthearray.Then,keeptrackoftwopointersinthearray,oneat
thebeginningandoneattheend.Wheneverthesumofthecurrenttwointegersis
lessthanx,movethefirstpointerforwards,andwheneverthesumisgreaterthanx,
movethesecondpointerbackwards.Ifyoucannotfindtwonumbersthataddtox
beforeoneofthepointersmeet,thenthereisnopairofintegersthatsumtox.This
solutiontakesO(nlogn)timebecausewesortthenumbers.

AnotherGoodAnswer:Createabinarysearchtreecontainingxminuseachelement
inthearray.Then,checkwhetheranyelementofthearrayappearsintheBST.It
takesO(nlogn)timetocreateabinarysearchtreefromanarray,sinceittakes
O(logn)timetoinsertsomethingintoaBST,andittakesO(nlogn)timetoseeif
anyelementinanarrayisinaBST,sincethelookuptimeforeachelementinthe
arraytakesO(logn).ThereforesteponetakesO(nlogn)timeandsteptwotakes
O(nlogn)time,soourtotalrunningtimeisO(nlogn).

Question:Debugging

Describeagoodstrategytofindabuginaprogram.

Answer:Thisquestionhasmanypossibleanswers,andisthesortofopenended
questionthatinterviewersoccasionallyask.Agoodanswertothisquestionmight
includeidentifyingtheportionoftheprograminwhichthebugappearstobe
occurringbasedonitsbehavior,aswellasusingbreakpointsandasteppertostep
throughtheprogram.Anyanswersthatinvolvethinkingaboutpossiblesourcesof
theproblemandfindingwaystolimitthesearchscopeofthebugaregoodanswers.