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The Code Challenge Book |
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How to Ace the Coding Bootcamp |
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Technical Interview |
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By |
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Daniel Borowski |
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Coderbyte |
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2 |
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Written by: Daniel Borowski | Coderbyte |
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Last updated: October 10th, 2016 |
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Cover image: By R. A. Nonenmacher (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC |
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BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via |
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Wikimedia Commons [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APascal's_Triangle_4_paths.svg] |
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TABLE OF CONTENTS |
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1. Introduction |
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PART 1: BACKGROUND |
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1.1. What is a coding bootcamp? |
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1.2. What is the purpose of a coding challenge? |
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1.3. Difference in coding challenges for coding bootcamps vs. job interviews |
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1.4. How are coding challenges related to engineering problems? |
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1.5. What you’ll learn in this book |
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1.6. |
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Skill level required for these challenges |
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2. Basics |
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2.1. |
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2.2. |
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Fundamental data structures you’ll need |
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Big-O: How to analyze your algorithms |
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PART 2: CHALLENGES |
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Fizzbuzz |
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Two sum problem |
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Sum nested arrays |
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Calculate angle on clock |
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Is N a prime number |
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Implement map and filter |
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Remove characters from array from string |
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Check if valid number of parenthesis |
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First non-repeating character |
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3. Practice |
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3.1. |
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3.2. |
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3.3. |
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3.4. |
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3.5. |
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3.6. |
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3.7. |
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3.8. |
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3.9. |
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3.10. Count words that have at least 3 continuous vowels |
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3.11. Remove all adjacent matching characters |
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3.12. Find majority element (element that appears more than n/2 times) |
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3.13. Switching light bulbs problem |
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3.14. List of integers that overlap in two ranges |
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3.15. Return mean, median, and mode of array |
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3.16. Encode consonants within a string |
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3.17. Convert array of strings into an object |
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3.18. Three sum problem |
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PART 3: GENERAL INTERVIEW TIPS |
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4. Resources |
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4.1. |
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4.2. |
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Personal help |
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Interview preparation articles |
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3 |
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5 |
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6 |
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10 |
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13 |
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15 |
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35 |
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46 |
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58 |
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4 |
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PART 1 |
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BACKGROUND |
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“Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like |
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measuring aircraft building progress by weight.” |
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- Bill Gates |
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CHAPTER 1: Introduction |
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5 |
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1.1. What is a coding bootcamp? |
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A coding bootcamp is an intensive training program that teaches students computer programming |
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over the span of several weeks. The goal of these bootcamps is to condense the concepts taught in a |
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standard college computer science program into a crash course that focuses explicitly on the practical |
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skills and knowledge they offer. That way, students are prepared for software engineering jobs |
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immediately after they finish the program. There are close to one hundred coding bootcamps in the |
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United States alone that focus on teaching software development, data science, and mobile |
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application development.[1] And it’s not just the U.S. -- bootcamps are sprouting up all over the world, |
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in countries like Portugal, Poland, France, and the U.K.[2] You can read more about bootcamps here: |
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http://bit.ly/2eb7Xzf |
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During the bootcamp, students follow a rigorous schedule that typically runs over the course of 8- |
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12 weeks. It includes learning to code in a specific language, learning new software tools and |
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methodology, studying algorithms, creating projects, working in groups, and other activities that are |
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designed to prepare the student for the world of software engineering. On average, these bootcamps |
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cost about $12,000 for the whole experience.[3] Their steep tuition costs are justified by the promise |
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that graduates will be able to find exciting jobs with high salaries once they’re done. It can be a great |
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option for someone with little to no coding experience who is looking to broaden their skills and |
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transition into a new job. Once someone decides that this is the route they want to take, the first step |
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is to complete an application online. One of the first challenges that person (you!) will face is the |
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coding challenge. |
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1.2. What is the purpose of a coding challenge? |
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When applying for a software engineering position at a company, the employer is typically going to |
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do more than look at your resume and schedule a short interview. They may ask you to solve a few |
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technical challenges, either online or on a whiteboard. This is done in order to: |
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1. Determine how well you can code. |
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2. Gauge your problem-solving abilities when faced with a novel challenge. |
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3. Figure out if you can work through a difficult problem under a time limit. |
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4. See how you handle a situation if you are stuck or confused. |
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Coding bootcamps follow the same model and typically ask their applicants to solve a few coding |
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challenges at some point in the interview process. Below are a couple of sample bootcamp coding |
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challenges: |
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[1] Course Report Market Sizing Report 2016: http://bit.ly/296nHFr |
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[2] Quora question about international coding bootcamps: http://bit.ly/2cRX0Em |
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[3] Course Report Market Sizing Report 2016: http://bit.ly/296nHFr |
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6 |
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You have been given a list of words. Write a program that will take this list and return a new list with |
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all duplicate words removed. |
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You have been given a number. Write a program that will determine if this number is a prime number |
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or not. |
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During the interview, you will most likely have the option of asking questions to clarify your |
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understanding of the problem. You will then be asked to give a high-level explanation of how you will |
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work through the problem followed by writing a solution on the whiteboard or in a Word document. |
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Afterwards, you will most likely discuss your code with the interviewer who may ask questions like |
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why you wrote it in such a way, whether it will work for a given input, or how it might be made more |
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efficient. |
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In the end, you will (hopefully) have written a program that does what it’s supposed to and the |
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interviewer will (hopefully) have gained an understanding of how you think when presented with a |
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challenging problem, how you react to any issues that may arise, and whether you are adept at |
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explaining your thought processes. |
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1.3. |
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Coding bootcamp interviews vs. job interviews |
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As mentioned, most coding bootcamps follow the same model for interviews as companies looking to |
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recruitcandidates for coding jobs. These positions usually go by one of the following names: |
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• Software Engineer |
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• Software Developer |
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• Front-end Developer/Engineer |
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• Back-end Developer/Engineer |
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• Web Developer |
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• Programmer |
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• |
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(Insert programming language here) developer |
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While the interview models may be similar, the questions asked in bootcamp interviews are going |
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to be very different than those asked in interviews for engineering positions at companies like |
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Google, for instance. When applying to a coding job at a company, the questions will typically be |
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more complex. They may require knowledge in several domains of computer science, including data |
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structures, algorithms, systems design, mathematical optimization, and statistics. They may also |
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require much more code to actually solve the problem. |
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Below are some examples of challenges you may encounter at large technology companies like |
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Google or Microsoft: |
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Find the largest common subtree within two binary search trees. Solve this problem in linear time if |
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you can. |
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7 |
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How would you sort a 1 terabyte file of people’s names if your RAM is limited to 4 gigabytes? What |
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data structures would you use? |
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You may be asking yourself: does the ability to solve these challenges mean someone is a good |
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programmer? What if they can solve the problems but don’t work great under the pressure of a time |
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constraint? What if they just studied the solutions to a hundred coding challenges a few days before |
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the interview but couldn’t actually solve them on their own? Some members of the programming |
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community are very critical of the “the technical interview,” and there are plenty of articles, blog |
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posts, and sites online that explain why these types of challenges may be flawed for determing |
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whether someone is actually a good programmer.[1] Feel free to read the resources listed in the |
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footnote on this topic, but know that as of now, you will most likely encounter coding challenges |
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when applying to coding bootcamps and companies for engineering positions. |
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1.4. How are coding challenges related to engineering problems? |
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Coding challenges are meant to be representative of real software engineering tasks that may arise in |
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everyday programming. While coding challenges in interviews are meant to be solved within a few |
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minutes and with limited code, they can still be related to solutions for real engineering issues. Here |
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are some examples of how interview questions can be related to real engineering and development |
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problems: |
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• You may be asked to write a program that sorts a list of objects by name or age. In a real- |
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world situation, you may have an application that presents user data to an admin that must |
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then be filtered and sorted in different ways. |
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• You may be asked to write a program that quickly determines what object in a list was created |
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last and then removes it. This can be related to an application that presents events happening |
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in real-time and needs to quickly change or remove the latest event. |
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• You may be asked to write a program that removes duplicate elements from a list. This can be |
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related to a program that stores a birthday wishlist and prevents duplicate entries from being |
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displayed if an original entry for an item already exists in the list. |
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As mentioned, coding challenges for bootcamp interviews are generally easier than coding |
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challenges you may get in a job interview. For a bootcamp, knowledge of basic logic, simple looping, |
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data structures such as arrays and objects, and an understanding of functional programming may be |
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enough to pass. The challenges may be presented in a way that requires you to make use of different |
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data structures and then combine them, along with several different lines of logical statements. This |
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is to see if you have a basic grasp of programming, problem solving, and logical thinking. |
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[1] Google search for programmers and coding interviews: http://bit.ly/2dNSJ7j |
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In a job interview however, the coding challenges can be a bit harder and they may require use of |
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more advanced data structures, complex algorithms, and clever insights to solve. We will cover some |
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questions that can be asked in job interviews later on in the book, and you will see how they differ |
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from coding challenges typically asked in coding bootcamp admissions. Understanding and being able |
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to solve both types of coding challenges will prove to be incredibly useful in your coding education. |
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8 |
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1.5. What you’ll learn in this book |
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From here on in, this book will provide you with some basic code examples and explanations. It will |
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then list several different coding challenges that are a combination of the following topics: |
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• Fundamental data structures |
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• Working with hashtables |
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• Looping through arrays |
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• Functional programming |
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Every question will have an explanation detailing how to approach the problem and figure out a |
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high-level solution, followed by the presentation of a working code solution. Some of the challenges |
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will begin with a brute-force solution and then will slowly be modified towards a more efficient |
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program. All of the challenges will have working solutions in JavaScript, Python, and Ruby. |
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My ultimate goal is not for you to memorize a bunch of solutions to common challenges. Instead, |
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my goal is for you to learn how to approach coding challenges so that you can figure out what they |
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are asking and what data structures and algorithms you need to solve them. Actually learning to code |
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the solutions to problems takes time, practice, and a good grasp of the programming language you |
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are using. In this book I hope to teach you common themes between most coding challenges and |
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show you how specific data structures and algorithms can be used to solve almost every single |
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challenge. |
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1.6. |
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Skill level required for these challenges |
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This book is intended for people who understand the basic syntax of JavaScript, Python, and/or Ruby, |
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and have done some coding in one of those langauges. It will be easier to understand the challenge |
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solutions if you have an understanding of the following topics: |
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• Loops |
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• Arrays |
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• String manipulation |
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• Objects and accessing different properties |
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• Hash tables |
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• Basic math functions (e.g. ceiling, floor, modulo) |
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If you still need to brush up on these topics in any of the three languages listed above, below are |
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some resources you may find helpful: |
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9 |
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JavaScript |
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1. http://eloquentjavascript.net (especially chapters 1, 3, 4 and 5) |
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2. https://coderbyte.com/course/learn-javascript-in-one-week (refresher in JavaScript basics) |
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3. https://www.codecademy.com/learn/javascript (if you’re brand new to JavaScript) |
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4. https://teamtreehouse.com/library/javascript-basics |
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Python |
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1. https://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ |
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2. https://coderbyte.com/course/learn-python-in-one-week |
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3. https://www.codecademy.com/learn/python (if you’re brand new to Python) |
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4. http://www.learnpython.org/ (small tutorials with code samples you can run online) |
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Ruby |
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1. http://tryruby.org/levels/1/ (fun interactive site to learn Ruby) |
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2. https://coderbyte.com/course/learn-ruby-in-one-week |
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3. https://www.codecademy.com/learn/ruby (if you’re brand new to Ruby) |
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4. https://learnrubythehardway.org/book/ |
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All of the challenges in Chapter 3 will be on a scale similar to the easy and medium challenges on |
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Coderbyte (https://coderbyte.com/challenges). The only exception is the last challenge, or the “Three |
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sum” problem. This one is a bit harder than the rest, but is a good challenge to study for a couple of |
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reasons. It’s an example of a challenge where a basic solution is easy to see at first (i.e., writing a few |
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nested loops) but which can be improved by some clever manipulation of data structures and inputs |
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to produce a much faster solution. |
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CHAPTER 2: Basics |
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10 |
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2.1. |
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Fundamental data structures you’ll need for the bootcamp coding challenge |
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Array |
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A data structure is a way of organizing data in a computer. A simple example of a data structure you |
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may be familiar with already is the array. An array allows you to create and store a list of elements in |
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some specific order for access later on. In some languages, the elements all have to be of the same |
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type (e.g., string, integers, etc.), but in JavaScript, Python, and Ruby, you can have an array that stores |
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elements of different types. |
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Hash Table |
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The second most important data structure for coding challenges may very well be the hash table (also |
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known as an ‘associate array’ or ‘hash map’). It is a data structure that maps keys to values in an |
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efficient way. Elements in hash tables are not necessarily stored in the order they are added; instead, |
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they are accessed by their given keys. If you were checking for the existence of a certain item within |
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an array, you would have to write a loop that checks every element in it and stops once the desired |
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element was found. Even the built-in functions (e.g., indexOf in JavaScript, in in Python, include? in |
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Ruby) that do this for us are written in a way that actually loops through the array. A hash table on |
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the other hand does not need to loop to check if an element exists because the values are associated |
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with given keys.[1] This means that a hash table lookup and insertion will run in constant time (more |
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on this later).[2] |
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Object |
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An object allows you to group together properties such as variables, arrays, and even other data |
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structures and keep all of them in a sort of “container.” In Python and Ruby, you first create a class |
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which acts as a blueprint, and then you can instantiate objects based on the class. For example, you |
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can create a Car class which will list all possible properties of a car, and then you can create several |
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different Car objects. In JavaScript, this process is very similar except you do not create a class and |
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then instantiate objects; rather, one object will act as the “root” (or prototype) object and then you |
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can make copies of that object. |
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2.2. What is Big-O? |
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One main aspect of computer science and programming is analyzing the speed at which our programs |
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run given certain inputs. For example, imagine you wrote a program that reads in an array of names, |
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sorts the array into alphabetical order, and then returns the result. If your program is given an array |
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of 10 names, it most likely runs in less than half a second. But how long would it take for your |
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program to run with 100,000 names, or even 1 million names? This is where the analysis of |
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[1] What is a HashTable Data Structure Youtube Video: http://bit.ly/2dZ5Q3E |
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[2] Stack Overflow posts about hash tables and running time: http://bit.ly/2dxFHFF and http://bit.ly/2dm1mD5 |
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11 |
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algorithms and Big-O comes into play. There are a ton of great resources out there that explain in |
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rigorous detail how Big-O works both theoretically and practically, but I’ll provide a short explanation |
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so that later on you can have an understanding of the difference between a code solution that runs in |
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O(n2) vs. O(n). |
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Big-O is basically a tool that allows us to measure how algorithms respond to changes in input. |
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In other words, how does the algorithm perform if the input n is very small versus if n is extremely |
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large? The syntax for using Big-O is to use a variable (usually the letter n) which represents the length |
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of the input, and place it within parentheses. Given that O(n) means that the algorithms grows |
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linearly with the input, you can imagine that we must perform a computational “step” for every |
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element in the input. So if n represents an array with 100 elements, then our algorithm will perform |
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about 100 steps. If n now grows to 100,000 elements, our algorithm will perform 100,000 steps. |
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Now imagine we have an algorithm that runs in O(n2). If n represents an array with 100 |
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elements, our algorithm will perform about 10,000 steps before finishing (1002 = 10,000). If n now |
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grows to 100,000 elements, our algorithm will need to perform about 10,000,000,000 steps before |
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finishing! Now you can see the extreme difference between O(n) and O(n2) when n is equal to |
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100,000 elements. Now let’s say that each computational “step” takes about 1 millisecond to run (in |
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reality, the time it takes to perform a simple computation is much faster than 1 millisecond on a |
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modern computer). If the input n is equal to an array with 100,000 elements, the O(n) time algorithm |
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will finishing running in about 100 seconds (1 millisecond * 100,000), while the O(n2) algorithm will |
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need about 115 days before it finishes running. Given the option to choose an algorithm that runs in |
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O(n) or O(n 2), we should absolutely always choose O(n). |
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You can see a table of commonly used Big-O expressions here: http://bit.ly/2e2YlpC, and here |
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is a good introductory article on the basics of Big-O: http://bit.ly/1PzbnX4. |
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12 |
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PART 2 |
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CHALLENGES |
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“One of my most productive days was throwing |
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away 1,000 lines of code.” |
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- Ken Thompson |
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CHAPTER 3: Practice |
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13 |
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3.1. |
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Fizz buzz |
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We will start off with the infamous Fizz buzz challenge. This challenge has been used frequently in the |
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past as an initial coding challenge to filter out people who cannot write a simple solution. The general |
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problem is: |
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Print out all the numbers from 1 to 100. But for every number divisible by 3 print replace it with the |
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word “Fizz,” for any number divisible by 5 replace it with the word “Buzz” and for a number divisible |
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by both 3 and 5 replace it with the word “FizzBuzz.” |
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So your program should output: |
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1 |
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2 |
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Fizz |
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4 |
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Buzz |
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Fizz |
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7 |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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Let us examine how we can solve this problem. The first thing we notice is that we will definitely need |
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to write a loop because the problem asks us to print numbers within a range. Then we need to check |
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every number we encounter whether it is divisible by 3, 5, or 3 and 5. This means we’ll most likely |
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need at least 3 conditional statements. To check if a number is divisible by some number X we will be |
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using the modulo operator.[1] Then we need to either directly print the numbers, or we can store all |
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of the numbers in an array and then return the final array. Below is a sample solution with some |
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comments: |
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[1] Stack Overflow post explaining how to use the modulo operator: http://bit.ly/2dxq9Ss |
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14 |
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JavaScript |
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function fizzbuzz(n) { |
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// we will store the resulting numbers within an array |
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let result = []; |
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// loop from 1 to n |
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for (let i = 1; i <= n; i++) { |
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let add = ''; |
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// check if there is a remainder when dividing by 3, if not |
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// then we know this number is divisible by 3 |
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if (i % 3 === 0) { add += 'Fizz'; } |
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// check if divisible by 5 |
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if (i % 5 === 0) { add += 'Buzz'; } |
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// not divisible by either 3 or 5 |
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if (add === '') { result.push(i); } |
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else { result.push(add); } |
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} |
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return result; |
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} |
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Python |
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def fizzbuzz(n): |
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# we will store the resulting numbers within an array |
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result = [] |
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# loop from 1 to n |
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for i in range(1, n + 1): |
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add = '' |
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# check if there is a remainder when dividing by 3, if not |
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# then we know this number is divisible by 3 |
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if i % 3 == 0: |
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add += 'Fizz' |
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# check if divisible by 5 |
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if i % 5 == 0: |
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add += 'Buzz' |
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# not divisible by either 3 or 5 |
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if add == '': |
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result.append(i) |
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else: |
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result.append(add) |
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return result |
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15 |
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Ruby |
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def fizzbuzz(n) |
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# we will store the resulting numbers within an array |
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result = [] |
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# loop from 1 to n |
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(1..n).each do |i| |
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add = '' |
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# check if there is a remainder when dividing by 3, if not |
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# then we know this number is divisible by 3 |
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if i % 3 == 0 |
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add += 'Fizz' |
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end |
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# check if divisible by 5 |
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if i % 5 == 0 |
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add += 'Buzz' |
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end |
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# not divisible by either 3 or 5 |
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if add == '' |
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result.push(i) |
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else |
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result.push(add) |
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end |
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end |
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return result |
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end |
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3.2. |
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Two sum problem |
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The two sum problem is a classic coding interview question asked at both coding bootcamps and job |
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interviews. The problem is as follows: |
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You are given an array and some number S. Determine if any two numbers within the array sum to S. |
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We’ll first cover the most intuitive way to solve this problem. That is to simply loop through the array |
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and for each element check if there is a second element that when both are summed are equal to S. |
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This will require us to write a nested loop.[1] This solution will run in O(n2) time though because of the |
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nested loop. We can actually do better and write an algorithm that runs only in O(n) time but uses |
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some extra space. |
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[1] Post on “Why are nested loops considered bad practice?” http://bit.ly/2dL7w08 |
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We will use a hash table where insertion and lookup run in constant O(1) time. As we loop through |
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the array we add each element into a hash table. Then we check to see if S minus the current |
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elements exists in the hash table as we are looping. |
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16 |
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JavaScript |
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function twoSum(arr, S) { |
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let hashTable = {}; |
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// check each element in array |
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for (let i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) { |
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// calculate S - current element |
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let sumMinusElement = S - arr[i]; |
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// check if this number exists in hash table |
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if (hashTable[sumMinusElement] !== undefined) { |
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return true; |
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} |
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// add the current number to the hash table |
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hashTable[arr[i]] = true; |
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} |
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return false; |
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} |
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Python |
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def twoSum(arr, S): |
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hashTable = {} |
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# check each element in array |
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for i in range(0, len(arr)): |
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# calculate S minus current element |
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sumMinusElement = S - arr[i] |
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# check if this number exists in hash table |
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if sumMinusElement in hashTable: |
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return True |
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# add the current number to the hash table |
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hashTable[arr[i]] = True |
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return False |
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17 |
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Ruby |
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def twoSum(arr, s) |
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hashTable = Hash.new |
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# check each element in array |
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arr.each_with_index do |v, i| |
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# calculate s minus current element |
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sumMinusElement = s - arr[i] |
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# check if this number exists in hash table |
|
if hashTable.key?(sumMinusElement) |
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return true |
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end |
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# add the current number to the hash table |
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hashTable[arr[i]] = true |
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end |
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return false |
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end |
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3.3. |
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|
Calculcate the sum of nested arrays |
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This problem asks you to sum up all of the numbers within an array, but the array may also contains |
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other arrays with numbers. This is what we call a nested array. For example: |
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[1, 1, 1, [3, 4, [8]], [5]] |
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is a nested array and summing all the elements should produce 23. We will solve this problem by |
|
implementing a recursive function where if an array is encountered within an array, we simply sum all |
|
of the inner arrays elements and then add that to the final result. For example, with the code solution |
|
below applied to the above array, the following steps would take place: |
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|
|
1. result = 1 |
|
2. result = 1 + 1 = 2 |
|
3. result = 2 + 1 = 3 |
|
4. result = 3 + sumNested([3, 4, [8]]) |
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|
4.1. |
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4.2. |
|
4.3. |
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|
result = 3 |
|
result = 3 + 4 |
|
result = 7 + sumNested([8]) |
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|
4.3.1. result = 8 |
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5. result = 3 + 15 = 18 |
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6. result = 18 + sumNested([5]) |
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result = 5 |
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6.1. |
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7. result = 18 + 5 = 23 |
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The algorithm below simply loops through the entire array, and if a nested array is encounterd, it |
|
loops through all of its elements as well. The running time of this algorithm is therefore O(n) where n |
|
is the length of the entire list of elements. |
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|
18 |
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|
JavaScript |
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|
function sumNested(arr) { |
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|
let result = 0; |
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|
// sum up all the numbers in array |
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for (let i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) { |
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|
// if element is a nested array, sum all of its elements |
|
if (typeof arr[i] !== 'number') { |
|
result += sumNested(arr[i]); |
|
} else { |
|
result += arr[i]; |
|
} |
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|
} |
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|
return result; |
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} |
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|
Python |
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|
def sumNested(arr): |
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|
result = 0 |
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|
# sum up all the numbers in array |
|
for i in range(0, len(arr)): |
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|
# if element is a nested array, sum all of its elements |
|
if type(arr[i]) is not int: |
|
result += sumNested(arr[i]) |
|
else: |
|
result += arr[i] |
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return result |
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19 |
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Ruby |
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|
def sumNested(arr) |
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|
result = 0 |
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|
# sum up all the numbers in array |
|
arr.each_with_index do |val, i| |
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|
# if element is a nested array, sum all of its elements |
|
if !val.instance_of? Fixnum |
|
result += sumNested(val) |
|
else |
|
result += val |
|
end |
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end |
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return result |
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end |
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|
3.4. |
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|
Calculcate the angle on a clock |
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|
This problem asks you to determine the angle between the to hands on a clock. For example, if the |
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minute hand is on the 3 and the hour hand is on the 12, then this forms a 90 degree angle. If the hour |
|
hand is slightly past the 2 and the minute hand is on the 4, then the angle formed between the hands |
|
is 50 degrees (image below for reference [Clock angle problem on Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/2dxFmmt]). |
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|
We will solve this problem by first calculating the angles for the hour hand and minute hand |
|
separately. The minute hand is the easiest and that is simply: |
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Minute hand angle = 6 * minutes |
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because there are 360 degrees total on the clock and there are a total of 60 minutes, so 360 / 60 = 6 |
|
degrees per minute. The hour hand is a bit trickier because it moves slightly every time the minute |
|
hand moves. Therefore, to calculate the angle of the hour hand we need to take into account how |
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much the minute hand has moved. |
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20 |
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First, we can perform the same calculcation we did above but with different values. The hour hand |
|
moves around the entire clock after 12 hours, of 720 minutes, which gives us 360 / 720 = 0.5 per |
|
minute. We also need to account for how much the minute hand has moved. The full equation is |
|
below: |
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|
Hour hand angle = 0.5 * change in minutes = 0.5 * (60 * hour + minutes) |
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|
The angle between these two hands will therefore be the absolute value of the hour hand angle |
|
minus the minute hand angle. But one caveat, and that is if the number is greater than 180 degrees |
|
we actually need to subtract the value from 360 because the hands are on the opposite side of the |
|
clock. |
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|
JavaScript |
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|
function clockAngle(hour, min) { |
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|
var h = 0.5 * (60 * hour + min); |
|
var m = 6 * min; |
|
var angle = Math.abs(h - m); |
|
return (angle > 180) ? 360 - angle : angle; |
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} |
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|
Python |
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|
def clockAngle(hour, mins): |
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|
h = 0.5 * (60 * hour + mins) |
|
m = 6 * mins |
|
angle = abs(h - m) |
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if angle > 180: |
|
return 360 - angle |
|
else: |
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return angle |
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|
Ruby |
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|
def clockAngle(hour, min) |
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|
h = 0.5 * (60 * hour + min) |
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m = 6 * min |
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angle = (h - m).abs |
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if angle > 180 |
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return 360 - angle |
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else |
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return angle |
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end |
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end |
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21 |
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3.5. Determine if N is a prime number |
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This is a classic coding questins that asks you to write a program to determine whether or not some |
|
input N is a prime number. A prime number is a number that is divisible only by 1 and itself. The first |
|
few prime numbers are: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 17, … |
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|
The simplest way to solve this challenge is to first see that the only way for a number to be a |
|
prime is for it to have no divisors between 2 and itself. For example, to check if 9 is prime you would |
|
check if 9 is divisible by 2, if 9 is divisible by 3, etc. To check if a number is exactly divisible by some |
|
other number we are going to using the modulo operation to see if there is a remainder after the |
|
divison. For example, 9 modulo 2 gives us 1, but then 9 % 3 is 0 so we know that 9 is not a prime |
|
number because it is divisble by 3. |
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|
The solution for this problem would therefore be structured the following way: Write a loop |
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|
|
from 2 to N to check if (N modulo x), where x is every number we are checking, is equal to 0. If so, |
|
then the number is prime, otherwise it is not. But there is a tiny detail we can implement to make the |
|
algorithm run a bit faster. The detail is that if N is not a prime number, then there are two numbers |
|
when multipled give N: a * b = N. The detail is that one of the numbers, a or b, will always be less |
|
than the square root of N.[1] With this detail in mind, we don’t need to loop from 2 to N now, we can |
|
simply loop from 2 to the square root of N. The running time will therefore be O(√n). |
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|
JavaScript |
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|
function isprime(n) { |
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|
// all numbers less than 2 are not primes |
|
if (n < 2) { return false; } |
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|
// loop from 2 to sqrt(n) |
|
for (let i = 2; i <= Math.ceil(Math.sqrt(n)); i++) { |
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|
|
// check if (n mod i) is equal to 0, if so then there are |
|
// two numbers, a and b, that can multiply to give n |
|
if (n % i === 0) { return false; } |
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|
} |
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|
return true; |
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|
} |
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|
[1] Stack Overflow post and comment on “Calculcating and printing the Nth prime number” http://bit.ly/2e7gzLi |
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22 |
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Python |
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|
|
import math |
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|
|
def isprime(n): |
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|
|
# all numbers less than 2 are not primes |
|
if n < 2: |
|
return False |
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|
|
# loop from 2 to sqrt(n) |
|
for i in range(2, int(math.ceil(math.sqrt(n)))): |
|
|
|
# check if (n mod i) is equal to 0, if so then there are |
|
# two numbers, a and b, that can multiply to give n |
|
if n % i == 0: |
|
return False |
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|
return True |
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|
Ruby |
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|
|
def isprime(n) |
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|
|
# all numbers less than 2 are not primes |
|
return false if n < 2 |
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# loop from 2 to sqrt(n) |
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(2..Math.sqrt(n).round).each do |i| |
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# check if (n mod i) is equal to 0, if so then there are |
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# two numbers, a and b, that can multiply to give n |
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return false if n % i == 0 |
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end |
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return true |
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end |
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23 |
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3.6. |
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Implement map and filter |
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Map and filter are common functional programming methods that you’ve most likely used when |
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coding. They are both functions that take in a list, perform some operation on that list without |
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changing the original list, and then return a new lists. The functions do not change any other variables |
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and do not touch anything else except those lists they were given. JavaScript, Python, and Ruby all |
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have their own built-in versions of these functions, but we are going to impement our own. |
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|
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Map works by taking a list and a function, and it applies the function to each element in the list and |
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returns a new list. For example, you may want to square every number in an array or append a string |
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to every element in an array. We want an implementation where we can pass in two parameters, one |
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being the array and the second being some function that will be mapped onto every element. |
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Filter works by taking a list and a conditional statement, and it returns a new list where every |
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element in the original list passes the conditional (returns true). For example, you may have a list of |
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ages and you want a new list of ages where each one is between 21 and 35. We want an |
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implementation where, similar to the map function, we pass in a list and a function that contains |
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within it a conditional statement. |
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|
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Some extra resources on functional methods are listed below: |
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JavaScript |
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http://cryto.net/~joepie91/blog/2015/05/04/functional-programming-in-javascript-map-filter- |
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reduce/ |
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Python |
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http://blog.lerner.co.il/implementing-map-reduce/ |
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Ruby |
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https://mauricio.github.io/2015/01/12/implementing-enumerable-in-ruby.html |
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http://augustl.com/blog/2008/procs_blocks_and_anonymous_functions/ |
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24 |
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JavaScript |
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function map(arr, fn) { |
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let result = []; |
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// apply the function to each element and store the result |
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for (let i of arr) { |
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let applied = fn(i); |
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result.push(applied); |
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} |
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return result; |
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} |
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// usage |
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let square = (x) => x * x; |
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let addZeros = (x) => parseInt(x += '00'); |
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map([1, 2, 3, 4], square); // => [1, 4, 9, 16] |
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map([1, 2, 3, 4], addZeros); // => [100, 200, 300, 400] |
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function filter(arr, fn) { |
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let result = []; |
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// pass the element to the function and check |
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// if the result comes back true |
|
for (let i of arr) { |
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let check = fn(i); |
|
if (check) { result.push(i); } |
|
} |
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return result; |
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} |
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// usage |
|
let isPositive = (x) => x > 0; |
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filter([-2, 4, 5, 8, -44, -6], isPositive); // => [4, 5, 8] |
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25 |
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Python |
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def map(arr, fn): |
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result = [] |
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|
# apply the function to each element and store the result |
|
for i in arr: |
|
applied = fn(i) |
|
result.append(applied) |
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return result |
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|
|
# usage |
|
square = lambda x: x * x |
|
addZeros = lambda x: int(str(x) + '00') |
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|
map([1, 2, 3, 4], square) # => [1, 4, 9, 16] |
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map([1, 2, 3, 4], addZeros) # => [100, 200, 300, 400] |
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def filter(arr, fn): |
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|
result = [] |
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|
# pass the element to the function and check |
|
# if the result comes back true |
|
for i in arr: |
|
check = fn(i) |
|
if check: |
|
result.append(i) |
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return result |
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|
|
# usage |
|
isPositive = lambda x: x > 0 |
|
filter([-2, 4, 5, 8, -44, -6], isPositive); # => [4, 5, 8] |
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26 |
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Ruby |
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|
def map(arr, fn) |
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|
result = [] |
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|
|
# apply the function to each element and store the result |
|
arr.each do |i| |
|
applied = fn.call(i) |
|
result.push(applied) |
|
end |
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|
return result |
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|
end |
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|
square = lambda { |x| x * x } |
|
addZeros = lambda { |x| x.to_s + '00' } |
|
|
|
p map([1, 2, 3, 4], square) # => [1, 4, 9, 16] |
|
p map([1, 2, 3, 4], addZeros) # => [100, 200, 300, 400] |
|
|
|
def filter(arr, fn) |
|
|
|
result = [] |
|
|
|
# pass the element to the function and check |
|
# if the result comes back true |
|
arr.each do |i| |
|
check = fn.call(i) |
|
if check |
|
result.push(i) |
|
end |
|
end |
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|
return result |
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|
end |
|
|
|
# usage |
|
isPositive = lambda { |x| x > 0 } |
|
p filter([-2, 4, 5, 8, -44, -6], isPositive); # => [4, 5, 8] |
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27 |
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3.7. |
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|
|
Remove set of characters from a string |
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|
|
These types of challenges are very common for people learning to code. The problem description is: |
|
|
|
You are given an array of characters and a string S. Write a function to return the string S with all the |
|
characters from the array removed. |
|
|
|
The first thing to notice is that we’ll need to loop through the entire string S and loop through the |
|
array of characters because we’ll need to find the characters to actually remove from the string. |
|
There are two ways to construct the loops: |
|
|
|
1. Loop through the array of characters and for each chracter, find all of the occurences in S and |
|
|
|
remove them. |
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|
|
2. Loop through the string S and if the current character exists in the array of characters |
|
|
|
somewhere, remove it. |
|
|
|
We’re going to go with the second option because we can improve the algorithm by actually storing |
|
all of the characters in the array in a hash table. This will allow us to loop through the string S and |
|
determine if the current character needs to be removed by checking if it exists in the hash table. |
|
Remember from before, checking if an element exists in a hash table is done in constant time so the |
|
running time of our algorithm will be O(n) where n is the length of the string S plus some |
|
preprocessing where we loop through the array of characters and store them in a hash table. |
|
|
|
JavaScript |
|
|
|
function removeChars(arr, string) { |
|
|
|
// store characters of arr in a hash table |
|
var hashTable = {}; |
|
for (let c of arr) { |
|
hashTable[c] = true; |
|
} |
|
|
|
// loop through the string and check if the character exists in |
|
// the hash table, if so, do not add it to the result string |
|
let result = ''; |
|
for (let c of string) { |
|
if (hashTable[c] === undefined) { |
|
result += c; |
|
} |
|
} |
|
|
|
return result; |
|
|
|
} |
|
|
|
// usage |
|
removeChars(['h', 'e', 'w', 'o'], "hello world"); // => "ll rld" |
|
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|
28 |
|
|
|
Python |
|
|
|
def removeChars(arr, string): |
|
|
|
# store characters of arr in a hash table |
|
hashTable = {} |
|
for c in arr: |
|
hashTable[c] = True |
|
|
|
# loop through the string and check if the character exists in |
|
# the hash table, if so, do not add it to the result string |
|
result = '' |
|
for c in string: |
|
if c not in hashTable: |
|
result += c |
|
|
|
return result |
|
|
|
# usage |
|
print removeChars(['h', 'e', 'w', 'o'], 'hello world') # => "ll rld" |
|
|
|
Ruby |
|
|
|
def removeChars(arr, string) |
|
|
|
# store characters of arr in a hash table |
|
hashTable = Hash.new |
|
arr.each { |c| hashTable[c] = true } |
|
|
|
# loop through the string and check if the character exists in |
|
# the hash table, if so, do not add it to the result string |
|
result = '' |
|
string.split('').each do |c| |
|
if !hashTable.key?(c) |
|
result += c |
|
end |
|
end |
|
|
|
return result |
|
|
|
end |
|
|
|
# usage |
|
puts removeChars(['h', 'e', 'w', 'o'], 'hello world') # => "ll rld" |
|
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|
3.8. |
|
|
|
Check if valid number of parenthesis |
|
|
|
This problem asks you to determine if there is a valid number of matching parenthsis in a string, or |
|
more formally: |
|
|
|
You are given a string with the symbols ( and ) and you need to write a function that will determine if |
|
the parenthsis are correctly nested in the string which means every opening ( has a closing ) |
|
|
|
There are countless ways to actually nest parenthsis and have them be valid, for example: |
|
|
|
29 |
|
|
|
() |
|
(()) |
|
()()() |
|
((()())) |
|
|
|
Below are examples of some invalid matchings: |
|
|
|
(() |
|
(((( |
|
())() |
|
()()()) |
|
|
|
The first thing to notice is that it doesn’t matter how many parenthesis we actually have, what |
|
matters is that every single opening parenthsis “(“ at some point has a closing parenthesis “).” What |
|
we can do to solve this challenge is to maintain a counter and every single time we encounter an |
|
opening symbol we add 1 to it. Then every time we encounter a closing symbol we remove 1. If all |
|
opening symbols have a matching symbol at some point in the string, the end result of the counter |
|
should be 0. If it is more or less we’ll know that all parenthesis aren’t properly matched. You can see |
|
that for the first 4 examples above, if we maintain a counter we will end up at 0 once we reach the |
|
end of the string. |
|
|
|
JavaScript |
|
|
|
function matchingParens(string) { |
|
|
|
let counter = 0; |
|
|
|
for (let c of string) { |
|
if (c === '(') { counter += 1; } |
|
if (c === ')') { counter -= 1; } |
|
} |
|
|
|
return (counter === 0) ? true : false; |
|
|
|
} |
|
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|
30 |
|
|
|
Python |
|
|
|
def matchingParens(string): |
|
|
|
counter = 0 |
|
|
|
for c in string: |
|
if c == '(': |
|
counter += 1r |
|
elif c == ')': |
|
counter -= 1 |
|
|
|
if counter == 0: |
|
return True |
|
else: |
|
return False |
|
|
|
Ruby |
|
|
|
def matchingParens(string) |
|
|
|
counter = 0 |
|
|
|
string.split('').each do |c| |
|
if c == '(' |
|
counter += 1 |
|
elsif c == ')' |
|
counter -= 1 |
|
end |
|
end |
|
|
|
if counter == 0 |
|
return true |
|
else |
|
return false |
|
end |
|
|
|
end |
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31 |
|
|
|
3.9. |
|
|
|
First non-repeating character |
|
|
|
For this challenge you are given a string and you should return the first character that is unique in the |
|
entire string. For example: |
|
|
|
• |
|
|
|
If string is “hello henry” then the first non-repeating character is the letter “o” because |
|
the first three characters in the string appear multiple times. |
|
|
|
A simple solution to this challenge is to loop through the string, and for each character, loop |
|
through the rest of the string and check if that character appears somewhere else. Then return the |
|
first character that does not appear anywhere in the string except the current location. This solution |
|
will run in O(n2) though because of the nested loop, so there is definitely room for improvement. |
|
|
|
We need to somehow store the letters and their frequencies in a data structure that’ll allow |
|
|
|
us to check how many times a specific character occurred. To solve this challenge, we’ll first loop |
|
through the string once and maintain a hash table that stores the count of each character. Then we’ll |
|
loop through the string again and return the first character we encounter that has a count of 1 in the |
|
hash table, meaning it occurs only once in the string. This algorithm will run in O(2n) because we are |
|
looping through the string twice, and this reduces to O(n) because we drop the constant,[1] which is |
|
much faster than the nested loop algorithm from above. |
|
|
|
JavaScript |
|
|
|
function firstNonrepChar(string) { |
|
|
|
let hashTable = {}; |
|
|
|
// store each character in the hash table with |
|
// the frequency of times it occurs |
|
for (let c of string) { |
|
if (hashTable[c] === undefined) { |
|
hashTable[c] = 1; |
|
} else { |
|
hashTable[c] += 1; |
|
} |
|
} |
|
|
|
// loop through string and return the first character |
|
// with a count of 1 in the hash table |
|
for (let c of string) { |
|
if (hashTable[c] === 1) { |
|
return c; |
|
} |
|
} |
|
|
|
// return -1 if no unique character exists |
|
return -1; |
|
|
|
} |
|
|
|
[1] Stack Overflow post on “Why is the constant always dropped from Big-O analysis?” http://bit.ly/2dNSM2X |
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|
32 |
|
|
|
Python |
|
|
|
def firstNonrepChar(string): |
|
|
|
hashTable = {} |
|
|
|
# store each character in the hash table with |
|
# the frequency of times it occurs |
|
for c in string: |
|
if c not in hashTable: |
|
hashTable[c] = 1 |
|
else: |
|
hashTable[c] += 1 |
|
|
|
# loop through string and return the first character |
|
# with a count of 1 in the hash table |
|
for c in string: |
|
if hashTable[c] == 1: |
|
return c |
|
|
|
# return -1 if no unique character exists |
|
return -1 |
|
|
|
Ruby |
|
|
|
def firstNonrepChar(string) |
|
|
|
hashTable = {} |
|
|
|
# store each character in the hash table with |
|
# the frequency of times it occurs |
|
string.split('').each do |c| |
|
if !hashTable.key?(c) |
|
hashTable[c] = 1 |
|
else |
|
hashTable[c] += 1 |
|
end |
|
end |
|
|
|
# loop through string and return the first character |
|
# with a count of 1 in the hash table |
|
string.split('').each do |c| |
|
if hashTable[c] == 1 |
|
return c |
|
end |
|
end |
|
|
|
# return -1 if no unique character exists |
|
return -1 |
|
|
|
end |
|
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3.10. Count words that have at least 3 continuous vowels |
|
|
|
This challenge will require us to take a string, separate it into words, and then loop through the words |
|
and count how many words have at least 3 vowels. This will require us to first convert a string into an |
|
array of words, then loop through that array and for each word loop through its characters and |
|
determine how many vowels exist in it and whether or not they are all adjacent to each other. There |
|
are two ways we can count the number or vowels within a word: |
|
|
|
33 |
|
|
|
1. Loop through the string and maintain a counter. |
|
2. Perform a regular expression search that counts the vowels. |
|
|
|
We are going to go with the second method of using a regular expression (regex) to count the vowels |
|
in a word and determine whether they are continuous. I’ll leave solving this challenge via the first |
|
method as an exercise for the reader. The solution below splits the string into an array of words and |
|
then loops through that array applying a regex search on each word. A regex search words by trying |
|
to find a search pattern within a string.[1] The search pattern we will be using is to search for a set of |
|
characters, the vowes in this case, and check whether at least 3 of them occur next to each other. |
|
|
|
JavaScript |
|
|
|
function threeVowels(string) { |
|
|
|
// split string into array of words |
|
let arr = string.split(' '); |
|
let count = 0; |
|
|
|
// this is the pattern we will be searching for |
|
// more on regex patterns here: https://mzl.la/1bMbpXP |
|
const pattern = /[aeiou]{3,}/gi; |
|
|
|
// loop through array of words |
|
for (let word of arr) { |
|
if (word.match(pattern) !== null) { |
|
count += 1; |
|
} |
|
} |
|
|
|
return count; |
|
|
|
} |
|
|
|
[1] What is a Regular Expression? http://bit.ly/2dL7WUh |
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34 |
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Python |
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import re |
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def threeVowels(string): |
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# split string into array of words |
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arr = string.split(' ') |
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count = 0 |
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# this is the pattern we will be searching for |
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# more on regex patterns here: http://bit.ly/RGnLh4 |
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# loop through array of words |
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for word in arr: |
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if re.search(r'[aeiou]{3,}', word) != None: |
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count += 1 |
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return count |
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Ruby |
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def threeVowels(string) |
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# split string into array of words |
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arr = string.split(' ') |
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count = 0 |
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# this is the pattern we will be searching for |
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# more on regex patterns here: http://bit.ly/2dAvCZl |
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pattern = /[aeiou]{3,}/ |
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# loop through array of words |
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arr.each do |word| |
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if pattern.match(word) != nil |
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count += 1 |
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end |
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end |
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return count |
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end |
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35 |
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3.11. Remove all adjacent matching characters |
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This challenge asks you to remove all matching adjacent pairs of letters from a string and return the |
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modified string. For example, if the string is “aaagykkok” then your program would return |
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“agyok” because “aa” and “kk” had been removed. |
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The first thing to notice is that we can create a simple loop that checks each character in the |
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string and checks if it is equal to the character right after it, if so, it skips both characters. It does this |
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for every character with a special case added to check if the end of the string has been reached |
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(because at the last character, we cannot check if it is equal to the next character because there is no |
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next character once it reaches the end of the string). |
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JavaScript |
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function removePairs(string) { |
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// new string that will be returned |
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let result = ''; |
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// loop through entire string |
|
for (let i = 0; i < string.length; i++) { |
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// if on last character |
|
if (i === string.length - 1) { |
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result += string[i]; |
|
} |
|
// characters are not equal then add to new string |
|
else if (string[i] !== string[i + 1]) { |
|
result += string[i]; |
|
} |
|
// if adjacent characters are equal to each other |
|
// skip the next character entirely |
|
else { |
|
i += 1; |
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} |
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} |
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return result; |
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} |
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36 |
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Python |
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def removePairs(string): |
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# new string that will be returned |
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result = '' |
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i = 0 |
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|
# loop through entire string |
|
while i < len(string): |
|
# if on last character |
|
if i == len(string) - 1: |
|
result += string[i] |
|
# characters are not equal then add to new string |
|
elif string[i] != string[i + 1]: |
|
result += string[i] |
|
# if adjacent characters are equal to each other |
|
# skip the next character entirely |
|
else: |
|
i += 1 |
|
i += 1 |
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return result |
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|
Ruby |
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|
def removePairs(string) |
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|
# new string that will be returned |
|
result = '' |
|
i = 0 |
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|
# loop through entire string |
|
while i < string.length do |
|
# if on last character |
|
if i == string.length - 1 |
|
result += string[i] |
|
# characters are not equal then add to new string |
|
elsif string[i] != string[i + 1] |
|
result += string[i] |
|
# if adjacent characters are equal to each other |
|
# skip the next character entirely |
|
else |
|
i += 1 |
|
end |
|
i += 1 |
|
end |
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return result |
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end |
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37 |
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3.12. Find the majority element (element that appears more than n/2 times) |
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Finding the majority element in an array involves finding an element that appears strictly more than |
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n/2 times where n is the size of the array. For example, in the array [1, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5] the |
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element 5 appears 4 times and n/2 = 6/2 = 3, so the element 5 is the majority element. If on the other |
|
hand the array was [1, 4, 4, 5, 5] then the element 5 is not the majority element. There |
|
actually is no majority element because no element appears more than n/2 = 5/2 = 2 times. |
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|
To solve this challenge we can create a nested loop and in the outer loop go through each |
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|
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element, and then in the inner loop check all the other elements in the array and count the |
|
occurences of the current element. This would make the code very compact but the algorithm would |
|
run in O(n2) time because of the nested loop checking each of the n elements, and then in the inner |
|
loop checking them again: n * n = n2. There is a faster way to solve this problem and that is to use the |
|
Majority Vote Algorithm (http://bit.ly/1KVeJTk). It works the following way: |
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|
|
1. Start with a candidate element that is empty and a count that is set to 0. |
|
2. For each element in the array we check it against the candidate element. |
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• |
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• |
|
• |
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If the candidate element is blank or the count is equal to 0, set the current element to be |
|
the candidate element and set the count to 1. |
|
If the current element equals the candidate element, increase the count by 1. |
|
If the current element does not equal the candidate element, decrease the count by 1. |
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|
This algorithm will run in linear time, O(n), because it only loops through the whole array a single |
|
time maintaining two variables as it passes through. |
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38 |
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|
JavaScript |
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|
|
function majorityElement(arr) { |
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|
|
let candidate = null; |
|
var count = 0; |
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|
|
// 1. if candidate is null or count = 0 set candidate to the current element |
|
// 2. if candidate matches current element we increase the count |
|
// 3. if candidate does not match current element, decrease the count by 1 |
|
for (let i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) { |
|
if (candidate === null || count === 0) { |
|
candidate = arr[i]; |
|
count = 1; |
|
} else if (arr[i] === candidate) { |
|
count += 1; |
|
} else { |
|
count -= 1; |
|
} |
|
} |
|
|
|
// once we have a majority element we check |
|
// to make sure it occurs more than n/2 times |
|
count = 0; |
|
for (let el of arr) { |
|
if (el === candidate) { |
|
count += 1; |
|
} |
|
} |
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|
|
return (count > Math.floor(arr.length / 2)) ? candidate : null; |
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} |
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39 |
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|
Python |
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|
|
import math |
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|
|
def majorityElement(arr): |
|
|
|
candidate = None |
|
count = 0 |
|
|
|
# 1. if candidate is None or count = 0 set candidate to the current element |
|
# 2. if candidate matches current element we increase the count |
|
# 3. if candidate does not match current element, decrease the count by 1 |
|
for i in range(0, len(arr)): |
|
if candidate is None or count == 0: |
|
candidate = arr[i] |
|
count = 1 |
|
elif arr[i] == candidate: |
|
count += 1 |
|
else: |
|
count -= 1 |
|
|
|
# once we have a majority element we check |
|
# to make sure it occurs more than n/2 times |
|
count = 0 |
|
for el in arr: |
|
if el == candidate: |
|
count += 1 |
|
|
|
if count > math.floor(len(arr) / 2): |
|
return candidate |
|
else: |
|
return None |
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|
40 |
|
|
|
Ruby |
|
|
|
def majorityElement(arr) |
|
|
|
candidate = nil |
|
count = 0 |
|
|
|
# 1. if candidate is nil or count = 0 set candidate to the current element |
|
# 2. if candidate matches current element we increase the count |
|
# 3. if candidate does not match current element, decrease the count by 1 |
|
arr.each do |i| |
|
if candidate == nil || count == 0 |
|
candidate = i |
|
count = 1 |
|
elsif i == candidate |
|
count += 1 |
|
else |
|
count -= 1 |
|
end |
|
end |
|
|
|
# once we have a majority element we check |
|
# to make sure it occurs more than n/2 times |
|
count = 0 |
|
arr.each do |el| |
|
if el == candidate |
|
count += 1 |
|
end |
|
end |
|
|
|
if count > (arr.length / 2).floor |
|
return candidate |
|
else |
|
return nil |
|
end |
|
|
|
end |
|
|
|
3.13. Switching light bulbs problem |
|
|
|
This problem has a lot of different variations, but the one we will cover here is the following: Imagine |
|
there are 100 light bulbs, labeled from 1 to 100, lined up all set to off initially. There are also 100 |
|
people each numbered 1 to 100 as well. Person 1 will go through all the light bulbs and flip the switch |
|
turning all of them on. Then person number 2 will go through all the light bulbs and flip the switch on |
|
each 2nd element turning them off, namely: light bulbs #2, #4, #6, #8, etc. Then person 3 will go and |
|
do the same for the 3rd ligh bulb, 6th, 9th, etc. Then questions are usually asked about the light bulbs, |
|
for example: |
|
|
|
• How many light bulbs will be on after 100 people have gone through them? |
|
• What is the status of the Nth light bulb (34th, 62nd, etc.)? Is it on or off? |
|
• How many people need to go through the line of light bulbs until exactly K light bulbs are set |
|
|
|
to on? |
|
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|
|
To answer any of these questions, we’ll write a function that goes through all N light bulbs and |
|
performs each operation for every person labeled from 1 to N. What we’ll do for this problem is |
|
setup an array of N elements all set to false, which will represent a light bulb in the off position. Then |
|
we will loop through every person from 1 to N, and within that loop create another loop that will |
|
multiply each person’s number by a number each time to change the following light bulbs: |
|
|
|
41 |
|
|
|
• For i = 1, change 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. |
|
• For i = 2, change 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. |
|
• For i = 3, change 3, 6, 9, 12, etc. |
|
|
|
JavaScript |
|
|
|
function lightBulbs(N) { |
|
|
|
// create N lightbulbs and set them to off |
|
let lightbulbs = []; |
|
for (let i = 0; i < N; i++) { |
|
lightbulbs.push(false); |
|
} |
|
|
|
// each person i labeled from 1 to N sets each kth |
|
// lightbulb on or off where k = 2*i, 3*i, etc. |
|
for (let i = 1; i <= N; i++) { |
|
let w = 1; |
|
let k = w * i; |
|
while (k <= N) { |
|
lightbulbs[k - 1] = !lightbulbs[k - 1]; |
|
w += 1; |
|
k = w * i; |
|
} |
|
} |
|
|
|
return lightbulbs; |
|
|
|
} |
|
|
|
Python |
|
|
|
def lightBulbs(N): |
|
|
|
# create N lightbulbs and set them to off |
|
lightbulbs = [False for i in range(0, N)] |
|
|
|
# each person i labeled from 1 to N sets each kth |
|
# lightbulb on or off where k = 2*i, 3*i, etc. |
|
for i in range(1, N + 1): |
|
w = 1 |
|
k = w * i |
|
while k <= N: |
|
lightbulbs[k - 1] = not lightbulbs[k - 1] |
|
w += 1 |
|
k = w * i |
|
|
|
return lightbulbs |
|
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|
|
42 |
|
|
|
Ruby |
|
|
|
def lightBulbs(n) |
|
|
|
# create N lightbulbs and set them to off |
|
lightbulbs = Array.new(n, false) |
|
|
|
# each person i labeled from 1 to N sets each kth |
|
# lightbulb on or off where k = 2*i, 3*i, etc. |
|
(1..n).each do |i| |
|
w = 1 |
|
k = w * i |
|
while k <= n do |
|
lightbulbs[k - 1] = !lightbulbs[k - 1] |
|
w += 1 |
|
k = w * i |
|
end |
|
end |
|
|
|
return lightbulbs |
|
|
|
end |
|
|
|
3.14. List of integers that overlap in two ranges |
|
|
|
For this problem you’ll need to find all the numbers that overlap between two ranges, for example: |
|
between the two ranges of [5, 20] and [17, 21] the overlapping integers are [17, 18, 19, 20, 21]. One |
|
way to solve this problem would be to create a list for each range and store each number within the |
|
respective lists. So for the above example, you would create two lists: |
|
|
|
[5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20] |
|
[17, 18, 19, 20, 21] |
|
|
|
Then you would just loop through one of the lists, and for each element check if it exists |
|
|
|
somewhere in the second list using a built in array search function. This solution would work and |
|
require little code, but it is not an efficient way to solve this problem. One reason is because there |
|
isn’t really any point in actually creating the lists and taking up space with them, and the second |
|
reason is the running time of this algorithm would be about O(n2) because this function would have a |
|
nested loop. We can solve this problem in a more efficient way. |
|
|
|
We will simply loop from the start of range 1 to the end of range 1. Then we will check if each |
|
of the numbers within that range are greater than the beginning of range 2 and lesser than the end of |
|
range 2. This algorithm will therefore run in O(n) time where n represents the length of one of the |
|
ranges. This algorithm only performs a simple check within the loop, namely, whether some element |
|
is smaller and greater than some other number – no searching required which is what speeds up the |
|
algorithm. |
|
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|
43 |
|
|
|
JavaScript |
|
|
|
function overlapping(range1, range2) { |
|
|
|
let overlap = []; |
|
|
|
// check whether each number within range 1 |
|
// is within the numbers in range 2 |
|
for (let i = range1[0]; i <= range1[1]; i++) { |
|
if (i >= range2[0] && i <= range2[1]) { |
|
overlap.push(i); |
|
} |
|
} |
|
|
|
return overlap; |
|
|
|
} |
|
|
|
Python |
|
|
|
def overlapping(range1, range2): |
|
|
|
overlap = [] |
|
|
|
# check whether each number within range 1 |
|
# is within the numbers in range 2 |
|
for i in range(range1[0], range1[1] + 1): |
|
if i >= range2[0] and i <= range2[1]: |
|
overlap.append(i) |
|
|
|
return overlap |
|
|
|
Ruby |
|
|
|
def overlapping(range1, range2) |
|
|
|
overlap = [] |
|
|
|
# check whether each number within range 1 |
|
# is within the numbers in range 2 |
|
(range1[0]..range1[1]).each do |i| |
|
if i >= range2[0] && i <= range2[1] |
|
overlap.push(i) |
|
end |
|
end |
|
|
|
return overlap |
|
|
|
end |
|
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|
44 |
|
|
|
3.15. Return mean, median, and mode of an array |
|
|
|
This is more of a simpler question that doesn’t require too much complex code to solve. It simply |
|
requires you to do 3 things, calculcate the mean which is the average of all the numbers, the median |
|
which is the middle number when the array is sorted, and the mode which is the number that |
|
appears the most. |
|
|
|
To calculcate the average we will simply add up all the numbers and divide by the length of |
|
the array. To calculcate the median we will first sort the array and then return the middle number. |
|
Finally, the mode will require some extra work, but to find the number that appears most often we |
|
will use a hash table to store the number of times each number occurs and we will return the one |
|
with the highest occurences. |
|
|
|
JavaScript |
|
|
|
function meanMedianMode(arr) { |
|
|
|
// to calculcate the mean we add up all the numbers |
|
// and divide by the length |
|
let mean = arr.reduce((prev, cur) => prev + cur) / arr.length; |
|
|
|
// to calculcate the median we need to sort the array |
|
// and return the middle element |
|
arr = arr.sort(); |
|
let median = arr[Math.floor(arr.length / 2)]; |
|
|
|
// to get the mode we will store all the elements in a hash table |
|
// and keep a count and also always maintain the largest count |
|
let mode = undefined; |
|
let hashTable = {}; |
|
for (let i of arr) { |
|
hashTable[i] === undefined ? hashTable[i] = 1 : hashTable[i] += 1; |
|
if (mode === undefined || hashTable[i] > mode) { |
|
mode = i; |
|
} |
|
} |
|
|
|
return { 'mean': mean, 'median': median, 'mode': mode }; |
|
|
|
} |
|
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|
45 |
|
|
|
Python |
|
|
|
def meanMedianMode(arr): |
|
|
|
# to calculcate the mean we add up all the numbers |
|
# and divide by the length |
|
mean = sum(arr) / float(len(arr)) |
|
|
|
# to calculcate the median we need to sort the array |
|
# and return the middle element |
|
arr = sorted(arr) |
|
median = arr[int(len(arr) / 2)] |
|
|
|
# to get the mode we will store all the elements in a hash table |
|
# and keep a count and also always maintain the largest count |
|
mode = None |
|
hashTable = {} |
|
for i in arr: |
|
if i in hashTable: |
|
hashTable[i] += 1 |
|
else: |
|
hashTable[i] = 1 |
|
if mode is None or hashTable[i] > mode: |
|
mode = i |
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|
|
return { 'mean': mean, 'median': median, 'mode': mode } |
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|
Ruby |
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|
|
def meanMedianMode(arr) |
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|
|
# to calculcate the mean we add up all the numbers |
|
# and divide by the length |
|
mean = arr.inject(:+) / arr.length.to_f |
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|
|
# to calculcate the median we need to sort the array |
|
# and return the middle element |
|
arr = arr.sort |
|
median = arr[(arr.length / 2).floor] |
|
|
|
# to get the mode we will store all the elements in a hash table |
|
# and keep a count and also always maintain the largest count |
|
mode = nil |
|
hashTable = {} |
|
arr.each do |i| |
|
if hashTable.key?(i) |
|
hashTable[i] += 1 |
|
else |
|
hashTable[i] = 1 |
|
end |
|
if mode == nil or hashTable[i] > mode |
|
mode = i |
|
end |
|
end |
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|
|
return { :mean => mean, :median => median, :mode => mode } |
|
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|
end |
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46 |
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3.16. Encode consonants within a string |
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This challenge asks you to take a string composed of only lowercase letters and space characters, for |
|
example “hello world” and replace every consonant in the string with the next consontant in the |
|
alphabet. So in the above example, the output should be “jemmo xosmf” and you can see that we |
|
left every vowel in place and only changed the consonants. You should notice that the last letter |
|
changed was from d to f and not from d to e because e is a vowel. |
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|
|
The first thing that would be helpful for this challenge is some sort of listing of all the |
|
consonants which would allow us to easily change one letter to the other by just moving one place |
|
over in the array. Then to solve the challenge we would just loop through the string, and if a letter is |
|
not a vowel we would find that letter in the array of consonants, move one place over and replace |
|
the letter in the string with that new letter. This would be a solution to the challenge, but the running |
|
time involves both the length of the string n and the length of the consonant array m because we are |
|
looping through the string while also searching for a letter in the array each time. The running time |
|
still reduces to O(n) because the consonant array stays constant meaning it will never get shorter or |
|
longer because there is a set amount of constants in the alphabet. So this solution is pretty good, but |
|
we can actually do a bit better. |
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|
|
To make this solution a bit faster we can actualy get rid of the consonant array altogether. |
|
This is because we can convert each letter as we go to its character code number, add 1 to it, and |
|
then convert this number back to a letter to get the next letter in the alphabet. Then we simply |
|
perform an extra check to make sure the new letter is not a vowel, but if so, simply add 1 more to its |
|
character code to get the next letter. |
|
|
|
Note: You can actually perform a modulo operation at some point in the code and therefore |
|
there will be no need for the special “z” character conditional at the beginning of the loop. I’ll leave |
|
this as an exercise for the reader. |
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47 |
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|
JavaScript |
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|
|
function encodeConsonants(string) { |
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|
|
let result = ''; |
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|
|
// store an array of vowels for use later |
|
const vowels = ['a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u']; |
|
|
|
// loop through entire string |
|
for (let i of string) { |
|
|
|
// special case for z |
|
if (i === 'z') { |
|
result += 'b'; |
|
break; |
|
} |
|
|
|
// if letter is not a vowel or a space |
|
else if (vowels.indexOf(i) === -1 && i !== ' ') { |
|
|
|
// convert each letter to its character code |
|
let newCode = i.charCodeAt(0) + 1; |
|
|
|
// perform check to make sure new letter is not a vowel by seeing if |
|
// the new letter exists in an array of vowels |
|
if (vowels.indexOf(String.fromCharCode(newCode)) !== -1) { |
|
newCode += 1; |
|
} |
|
|
|
// get new letter and add to new string |
|
result += String.fromCharCode(newCode); |
|
|
|
} |
|
|
|
// otherwise character is a vowel or a space |
|
else { |
|
result += i; |
|
} |
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|
} |
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|
return result; |
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|
} |
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48 |
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|
|
Python |
|
|
|
def encodeConsonants(string): |
|
|
|
result = '' |
|
|
|
# store an array of vowels for use later |
|
vowels = ['a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'] |
|
|
|
# loop through entire string |
|
for i in string: |
|
|
|
# special case for z |
|
if i == 'z': |
|
result += 'b' |
|
break |
|
|
|
# if letter is not a vowel or a space |
|
elif i not in vowels and i != ' ': |
|
|
|
# convert each letter to its character code |
|
newCode = ord(i) + 1 |
|
|
|
# perform check to make sure new letter is not a vowel by seeing if |
|
# the new letter exists in an array of vowels |
|
if chr(newCode) in vowels: |
|
newCode += 1 |
|
|
|
# get new letter and add to new string |
|
result += chr(newCode) |
|
|
|
# otherwise character is a vowel or a space |
|
else: |
|
result += i |
|
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|
return result |
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49 |
|
|
|
Ruby |
|
|
|
def encodeConsonants(string) |
|
|
|
result = '' |
|
|
|
# store an array of vowels for use later |
|
vowels = ['a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'] |
|
|
|
# loop through entire string |
|
string.chars.each do |i| |
|
|
|
# special case for z |
|
if i == 'z' |
|
result += 'b' |
|
break |
|
|
|
# if letter is not a vowel or a space |
|
elsif vowels.include?(i) == false and i != ' ' |
|
|
|
# convert each letter to its character code |
|
newCode = i.ord + 1 |
|
|
|
# perform check to make sure new letter is not a vowel by seeing if |
|
# the new letter exists in an array of vowels |
|
if vowels.include?(newCode.chr) |
|
newCode += 1 |
|
end |
|
|
|
# get new letter and add to new string |
|
result += newCode.chr |
|
|
|
# otherwise character is a vowel or a space |
|
else |
|
result += i |
|
end |
|
|
|
end |
|
|
|
return result |
|
|
|
end |
|
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50 |
|
|
|
3.17. Convert an array of strings into an object |
|
|
|
This challenge doesn’t strictly have a single output like the previous challenges, rather this challenge |
|
focuses on you using certain data structures correctly. Imagine you have several users entering |
|
information through a form, and on the back-end you get the information as a comma separated |
|
string of information. The information the user will enter in the form is: Name, Email, Age, and |
|
Occupation all in that order. Each user’s piece of information will be separated by a comma, and each |
|
user will be separated by a space, but some pieces of information can be blank for a user (excluding |
|
the name), for example: |
|
|
|
“Daniel,me@test.com,56,Coder John,,,Teacher Michael,mike@test.com,,” |
|
|
|
You can see above that all the information exists for Daniel, but email and age are missing for |
|
|
|
John, and age and occupation are missing for Michael. You should write a function that will take in |
|
this string of user information, and create an object (key-value mapping) where the key is the |
|
person’s name and the value will also be an object that stores the information of each user: email, |
|
age, and occupation. You can assume people’s names will be unique. |
|
|
|
To solve this challenge, we’ll split the string (at the space character) into an array of different |
|
people, and then for each person we’ll split the information (at the comma character). Then we will |
|
create a new user object and throw it into the global object that will store all the users. |
|
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|
51 |
|
|
|
JavaScript |
|
|
|
function convert(string) { |
|
|
|
// create empty object |
|
let obj = {}; |
|
|
|
// split the string at each person |
|
const people = string.split(' '); |
|
|
|
// loop through all people |
|
for (let p of people) { |
|
|
|
// split information for each person |
|
const info = p.split(','); |
|
|
|
// store this information in the user object |
|
let userObj = { |
|
'email': info[1] || null, |
|
'age': parseInt(info[2]) || null, |
|
'occupation': info[3] || null |
|
}; |
|
|
|
// store key-value in object of users now |
|
obj[info[0]] = userObj; |
|
|
|
} |
|
|
|
return obj; |
|
|
|
} |
|
|
|
// usage |
|
let s = "Daniel,me@test.com,56,Coder John,,,Teacher Michael,mike@test.com,,"; |
|
let people = convert(s); |
|
|
|
// testing |
|
people['Daniel']['age']; // => 56 |
|
people['Michael']['occupation'] // => null |
|
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|
52 |
|
|
|
Python |
|
|
|
def convert(string): |
|
|
|
# create empty object |
|
obj = {} |
|
|
|
# split the string at each person |
|
people = string.split(' ') |
|
|
|
# loop through all people |
|
for p in people: |
|
|
|
# split information for each person |
|
info = p.split(',') |
|
|
|
# store this information in the user object |
|
userObj = { |
|
'email': info[1] or None, |
|
'age': int(info[2]) if info[2] else None, |
|
'occupation': info[3] or None |
|
} |
|
|
|
# store key-value in object of users now |
|
obj[info[0]] = userObj |
|
|
|
return obj |
|
|
|
# usage |
|
s = "Daniel,me@test.com,56,Coder John,,,Teacher Michael,mike@test.com,," |
|
people = convert(s) |
|
|
|
# testing |
|
people['Daniel']['age'] # => 56 |
|
people['Michael']['occupation'] # => None |
|
|
|
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|
53 |
|
|
|
Ruby |
|
|
|
def convert(string) |
|
|
|
# create empty object |
|
obj = {} |
|
|
|
# split the string at each person |
|
people = string.split(' ') |
|
|
|
# loop through all people |
|
people.each do |p| |
|
|
|
# split information for each person |
|
info = p.split(',') |
|
|
|
# store this information in the user object |
|
userObj = { |
|
'email' => info[1] || nil, |
|
'age' => info[2].to_i || nil, |
|
'occupation' => info[3] || nil |
|
} |
|
|
|
# store key-value in object of users now |
|
obj[info[0]] = userObj |
|
|
|
end |
|
|
|
return obj |
|
|
|
end |
|
|
|
# usage |
|
s = "Daniel,me@test.com,56,Coder John,,,Teacher Michael,mike@test.com,," |
|
people = convert(s) |
|
|
|
# testing |
|
p people['Daniel']['age'] # => 56 |
|
p people['Michael']['occupation'] # => None |
|
|
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|
54 |
|
|
|
3.18. Three sum problem |
|
|
|
The three sum problem is very similar to the two sum problem we covered at the beginning of the |
|
chapter, except the problem statement now naturally changes to 3 elements instead of two: |
|
|
|
You are given an array and some number S. Determine if any three numbers within the array sum to S. |
|
|
|
As with the nested loop solution to the two sum problem, we can create a set of three nested loops |
|
that checks if any three elements in the array sum to S. The running time of this algorithm is O(n3) |
|
because of the nested loops. We can solve this problem more efficiently though with some |
|
modifications. |
|
|
|
First we sort the array into ascending order. We can use a built-in sort function which will run in |
|
O(nlogn).[1] Then we loop through each element in the array and for each of the elements we |
|
maintain two pointers (or indices), one from the (current position + 1) and the second pointer starting |
|
from the end of the array. Then we check to see if these 3 elements sum to S. One of 3 things will be |
|
true: |
|
|
|
1. If the current element plus the 2 other elements is greater than S, we decrease the pointer at |
|
|
|
the end of the array at 1. |
|
|
|
2. If the current element plus the other 2 elements is less than S, we increase the pointer at the |
|
|
|
beginning by 1. |
|
|
|
3. If the pointers end up meeting, then we know we cannot add 2 elements plus the current |
|
element to sum to S. We move on to the next element in the array and reset the pointers. |
|
|
|
This algorithm needs to loop through every single element in the array, and for each element in the |
|
worst case we will loop through all the other elements until the pointers end up at the same point. |
|
This algorithm therefore runs in O(nlogn) + O(n2) which reduces to O(n2). |
|
|
|
[1] The built-in sorting functions in JavaScript, Python, and Ruby use either mergesort, quicksort, or some |
|
combination of them to create a fast sorting algorithm that runs in O(nlogn) time. |
|
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|
55 |
|
|
|
JavaScript |
|
|
|
function threeSum(arr, S) { |
|
|
|
// sort the array |
|
var arr = arr.sort(); |
|
|
|
// loop and check each element |
|
for (let i = 0; i < arr.length - 2; i++) { |
|
|
|
// start two pointers, one from the current position + 1 |
|
// and the other at the end of the array |
|
let ptr_start = i + 1; |
|
let ptr_end = arr.length - 1; |
|
|
|
// check all other elements |
|
while (ptr_start < ptr_end) { |
|
|
|
let add = arr[i] + arr[ptr_start] + arr[ptr_end]; |
|
|
|
// if we find a sum |
|
if (add === S) { return true; } |
|
|
|
// if the sum is < S |
|
else if (add < S) { ptr_start += 1; } |
|
|
|
// otherwise the sum is > S |
|
else { ptr_end -= 1; } |
|
|
|
} |
|
|
|
} |
|
|
|
return false; |
|
|
|
} |
|
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|
56 |
|
|
|
Python |
|
|
|
def threeSum(arr, S): |
|
|
|
arr = sorted(arr) |
|
|
|
for i in range(0, len(arr) - 2): |
|
# start two pointers, one from the current position + 1 |
|
# and the other at the end of the array |
|
ptr_start, ptr_end = i + 1, len(arr) - 1 |
|
|
|
while ptr_start < ptr_end: |
|
add = arr[i] + arr[ptr_start] + arr[ptr_end] |
|
|
|
# if we find a sum |
|
if add == S: |
|
return True |
|
# if the sum < S |
|
elif add < S: |
|
ptr_start += 1 |
|
# if the sum > S |
|
else: |
|
ptr_end -= 1 |
|
|
|
return False |
|
|
|
Ruby |
|
|
|
def threeSum(arr, S) |
|
|
|
arr = arr.sort() |
|
|
|
(0..arr.length - 2).each do |i| |
|
|
|
# start two pointers, one from the current position + 1 |
|
# and the other at the end of the array |
|
ptr_start = i + 1 |
|
ptr_end = arr.length - 1 |
|
|
|
while ptr_start < ptr_end |
|
add = arr[i] + arr[ptr_start] + arr[ptr_end] |
|
|
|
# if we find a sum |
|
if add == S |
|
return true |
|
|
|
# if the sum < S |
|
elsif add < S |
|
ptr_start += 1 |
|
|
|
# if the sum > S |
|
else |
|
ptr_end -= 1 |
|
|
|
end |
|
|
|
end |
|
|
|
end |
|
|
|
return false |
|
|
|
end |
|
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|
57 |
|
|
|
PART 3 |
|
GENERAL INTERVIEW TIPS |
|
|
|
“Computer science is no more about computers |
|
than astronomy is about telescopes.” |
|
|
|
- Edsger Dijkstra |
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CHAPTER 4: Resources |
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58 |
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Staying calm in a coding interview and also being able to solve the challenge within a time limit is a |
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skill that can be mastered with enough practice and some general tips. In the bulk of this book we’ve |
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discussed over a dozen common coding questions asked in a coding bootcamp interview, and we also |
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covered some background on coding bootcamps and algorithms. Below we’ll provide some extra |
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resources where you can learn about how to stay calm during a stressful coding question, what |
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questions to ask the interviewer, how to answer certain questions effectively, etc. |
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4.1. |
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Personal help |
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For personal help, Coderbyte offers the Personalized Study Plan (https://coderbyte.com/study-plan) |
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that will help create a personal step-by-step guide for you to help prepare for a coding interview to a |
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bootcamp or job. It contains article, resources, challenges, and videos tailored to your goals and skill |
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level and it’s the best way to prepare for an upcoming coding interview at a top company or elite |
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coding bootcamp such as Hack Reactor, Fullstack Acadaemy, Flatiron School, Grace Hopper, |
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Codesmith, etc. |
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We provide access to an online community with our own Coderbyte Slack channel. As part of |
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the Study Plan mentioned above, you will get access to the channel and you’ll be able to ask |
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questions and chat with fellow coders preparing for upcoming interviews. |
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Aside from these features, one of the best ways to prepare for any type of coding interview is |
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to simply practice solving coding challenges, practice, and then practice some more. Coderbyte offers |
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more than 160 coding challenges (https://coderbyte.com/challenges) that you can solve directly |
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online. Then you can look at thousands of user solutions to see how others solved the same |
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challenges. |
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4.2. |
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Interview preparation articles |
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• Technical Interview Questions, Prep and More by Hack Reactor: http://bit.ly/2e9niPs |
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• 10 Must-Asks in a Bootcamp Interview by Course Report: http://bit.ly/2etZKcp |
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• How to Ace the Web Developer Job Interview by Coding Dojo: http://bit.ly/21y4UBd |
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• 5 Tips to Prepare You for a Coding Bootcamp by Galvanize: http://bit.ly/2dNTuxi |
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• From Zero to Hack Reactor in 5 months blog post by Jennie Eldon: http://bit.ly/2dMjhT7 |
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• What I Studied Before Applying to Hack Reactor post by Amira Anuar: http://bit.ly/2d8MJ7F |
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• |
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Inside the Mind of Hackbright’s Director of Admissions by Hackbright: http://bit.ly/2dNTwp4 |
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• Compare top coding bootcamps tool by Thinkful: http://bit.ly/2dxFhiI |
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