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.)