HackingaGoogleInterviewPracticeQuestions

PersonB

Question:BinarySearchTreeValidity

Writeafunctiontodeterminewhetheragivenbinarytreeofdistinctintegersisa
validbinarysearchtree.Assumethateachnodecontainsapointertoitsleftchild,a
pointertoitsrightchild,andaninteger,butnotapointertoitsparent.Youmayuse
anylanguageyoulike.

GoodAnswer:Notethatit'snotenoughtowritearecursivefunctionthatjustchecks
iftheleftandrightnodesofeachnodearelessthanandgreaterthanthecurrent
node(andcallsthatrecursively).Youneedtomakesurethatallthenodesofthe
subtreestartingatyourcurrentnodearewithinthevalidrangeofvaluesallowedby
thecurrentnode'sancestors.Thereforeyoucansolvethisrecursivelybywritinga
helperfunctionthatacceptsacurrentnode,thesmallestallowedvalue,andthe
largestallowedvalueforthatsubtree.Anexampleofthisisthefollowing(inJava):

boolean isValid(Node root) {

return isValidHelper(root, Integer.MIN_VALUE,
Integer.MAX_VALUE);
}
boolean isValidHelper(Node curr, int min, int max) {
if (curr.left != null) {
if (curr.left.value < min ||
!isValidHelper(curr.left, min, curr.value))
return false;
}
if (curr.right != null) {
if (curr.right.value > max ||
!isValidHelper(curr.right, curr.value, max))
return false;
}
return true;
}

TherunningtimeofthisalgorithmisO(n).

Question:OddManOut

You'regivenanunsortedarrayofintegerswhereeveryintegerappearsexactly
twice,exceptforoneintegerwhichappearsonlyonce.Writeanalgorithm(ina
languageofyourchoice)thatfindstheintegerthatappearsonlyonce.


GoodAnswer:Setupahashsetthatwewillputtheintegersfromthearrayinto.
Haveasecondvariablethatwillkeepasum.Startgoingthroughthearrayandfor
eachinteger,checktoseeifit'salreadyinthehashset.Ifitisnot,addthatintegerto
thesumandstorethatintegerinthehashset.Ifitisinthehashset,subtractthat
integerfromthesum.Whenthealgorithmfinishesgoingthroughthearray,thesum
variableshouldbeequaltotheintegerwewerelookingfor,sinceitistheonly
numberweneversubtractedfromthesum.ThistakesO(n)timeandO(n)space.

int oddManOut(int[] array) {

HashSet<Integer> s = new HashSet<Integer>();
int sum = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
if (s.contains(array[i])) {
sum = sum - array[i];
} else {
s.add(array[i]);
sum = sum + array[i];
}
}
return sum;
}

ReallyAwesomeAnswer:XORallthevaluesofthearraytogether!SinceXORis
commutativeandisitsowninverse,eachintegerinthearraythatappearstwicewill
cancelitselfout,andwe'llbeleftwiththeintegerwe'relookingfor.ThistakesO(n)
timeandO(1)space.Wetoldyoubitwisestuffwashandy!

int oddManOut(int[] array) {

int val = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
val ^= array[i];
}
return val;
}

Question:DesignaPokerGame

(Don'taskallthesequestionsatthesametime;askoneafteranother,sincethey
builduponeachother.)Withoutwritinganyactualcode,describeasmuchas
possiblehowyouwoulddesignapokergameprogram.Whatclasseswouldyou
have?Whatrelationshipswouldtheyhavewitheachother?Whatwouldbethe
basicflowoftheprogramandhowwouldthoseclassesplayapart?Ifyouthen
wantedtoaddanewtypeofpokergame(suchasTexasHold'em),howwouldthat
fitintoyourdesign?

Answer:Therearesomanypossibleanswerstothisproblemthatitwouldbe
difficulttosaythatoneansweristhebest.Looktomakesurethattheymake
classestosimulatethebasicpartsofapokergame(perhapsahand,thepot,agame
typeorrules,around,thedeck,etc.).Usinginheritance(subclassinginobject
orientedprogramming)whereitmakessenseisalsogoodforreusabilityand
extendibility.Usingdesignpatters(suchasModelViewController,
Listener/Observer,ortheSingletonpattern)isalsoagoodthing.Themainpointis
forthemtogetusedtothinkingabouthowtheywoulddesignasystem.Most
importantly,theyneedtothinkaboutsimplicity,reusability,andextendibilityin
theirdesign.

Question:LeaderElection

Describeatechniquetoidentifya"leader"amongagroupof10identicalservers
thatareallconnectedtoeveryotherserver.Therearenopriordistinguishing
characteristicsofanyofthemandthesameprogramtoidentifytheleaderstarts
runningonallofthematthesametime.Afterananswerisgiven,askhowmuch
networktrafficitrequiresand,if"ties"arepossible,askhowyoucanbreakties.

GoodAnswer:Haveeachserverwaitarandomamountoftimeandthensay"I'mit."
The"I'mit"announcementistimestamped,andthecomputerthattimestampedits
announcementfirstiselectedtheleader.Thisapproachrequiressendingout9
messages.Ifthereisatie,thecomputerscanrepeattheprocedure.

Notethatotheranswersarepossible,buteverycorrectanswerwilluserandomness
insomeway.

Question:QueueUsingStacks

Describeaqueuedatastructurethatisimplementedusingoneormorestacks.
Don'tworryaboutrunningtime.Writetheenqueueanddequeueoperationsforthe
queue.Youmayuseanylanguageyoulike.

Goodanswer:Youcanusetwostacks:an"incoming"stackandan"outgoing"stack.
Theenqueueanddequeueoperationswouldlooklikethis(inJava):

Stack in;
Stack out;
void enqueue(int value) {
while (!out.isEmpty())
in.push(out.pop());
in.push(value);
}

int dequeue() {
while (!in.isEmpty())
out.push(in.pop());
return out.pop();
}

Question:InstantMessaging

Describeadesignforaninstantmessagingprogramwherethereareseveral
servers,clientsareconnectedtoeachserver,andtheserverscommunicatewith
eachother.Describetheclasses,interfaces,andsoonthatyouwoulduseandhow
youwouldorganizethem.

Answer:Asinthepreviousdesignquestions,thereisnobestanswer.Goodtopicsto
discussarehoweachclientcommunicateswithaserver,howtheserversmaintain
statewiththeotherservers,howstateinformationiscommunicatedbetween
serversandclients,andthespeed/reliabilityoftheirdesign.

Question:MaximalSubarray

Givenanarray,describeanalgorithmtoidentifythesubarraywiththemaximum
sum.Forexample,iftheinputis[1,3,5,2,9,8,6,4],theoutputwouldbe[5,2,
9].

GoodAnswer:Observethatthesumofasubarrayfromelementitoelementjis
equaltothesumofthesubarrayfromelement1toelementjminusthesubarray
fromelement1toelementi1.Ouralgorithmwilliteratethroughthearray.The
algorithmkeepstrackofthesumxoftheelementsnolaterthantheelement.Itwill
alsokeeptrackoftheminimumsumyofthesubarrayfromthefirstelementtoan
elementnolaterthanthecurrentelement.Finally,Itwillalsokeeptrackofthe
subarrayzwiththemaximumsumsofar.Ateachstep,weupdatexbyaddingthe
currentelementtoit.Weupdateybycheckingwhetherx<y;ifso,wesetytobex.
Weupdatezbycheckingwhetheryxisgreaterthanz;ifso,wesetztobeyx.

Forexample,withthesampleinput,ouralgorithmwoulddothefollowing:

Current element | x | y | z
---------------------------------1
| 1 | 0 | 1
-3
| -2 | -2 | 0
5
| 3 | -2 | 5
-2
| 1 | -2 | 5
9
| 10 | -2 | 12
-8
| 2 | -2 | 12
-6
| -4 | -4 | 12
4
| 0 | -4 | 12


Surprisingly,thisproblemisequivalenttothestockmarketproblemdescribedin
handout3.Givenanarraya1,youcan"convert"ittoanarraya2forthestock
marketproblembysettingeachelementa2[i]tobea1[0]+a1[1]+...+a1[i].

Question:ObstacleAvoidance

Givenannxngridwithapersonandobstacles,howwouldyoufindapathforthe
persontoaparticulardestination?Thepersonispermittedtomoveleft,right,up,
anddown.

GoodAnswer:UsetheA*algorithmoranotherfastpathfindingalgorithm.(Itis
describedonWikipedia.)