Interview Camp 

 
Technique: Polynomial Hash Function 

Level: Hard 

Generate a good hash function for a String. 

 
Questions to Clarify: 

Solution: 
Hash functions are basic building blocks of hash based data structures. Interviewers are generally 
impressed if you have knowledge of good hash functions. 
 
For strings, we generate hash functions as a polynomial: 
 
hash("goat") => 'g'.x​3​ + 'o'.x​2​ + 'a'.x + 't' 
 
Note that these are the integer values of the characters. 
We need to assign an integer value to ​x​. Prime numbers are known to make good values for ​x​.  
The mathematical proof of this is beyond the scope of an interview. We use 53 in the code below. 
 
We run a simple for loop to calculate the hash: 
 
for i -> 0 to s.length - 1
hash = hash * x + s[i];

Pseudocode: 
(Note: Never write pseudocode in an actual interview. Unless you're writing a few
lines quickly to plan out your solution. Your actual solution should be in a real
language and use good syntax.)
 
find hash(string s)
int hash = 0, x = 53;
for i -> 0 to s.length - 1
hash = hash * x + s[i];
return hash;

Test Cases: 
Edge Cases: empty string, null string 
Base Cases: string with 1 character 
Regular Cases: try same string twice, should return the same hash code 

Time Complexity: O(n) 

Space Complexity: O(1) 

 
 
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Interview Camp 

 
public static int hash(String str) {
char[] ch = str.toCharArray();
int hash = 0, x = 53;
for (int i = 0; i < ch.length; i++) {
hash = hash * x + ch[i];
}
return hash;
}
 

 
 
© ​2017 Interview Camp (interviewcamp.io)