Daily Coding Problems

Process

Day	Origin	Difficulty	Python	Java
1	Google	Easy	1.py	1.java
2	Uber	Hard	2.py	2.java
3	Google	Medium
4	Stripe	Hard	4.py
5	Jane Street	Medium	5.py
6	Google	Hard
7	Facebook	Medium	7.py
8	Google	Easy
9	Airbnb	Hard	9.py	9.java
10	Apple	Medium
11	Twitter	Meidum	11.py
12	Amazon	Hard
13	Amazon	Hard	13.py
14	Google	Medium	14.py	14.java
15	Facebook	Medium
16	Twitter	Easy	16.py
17	Google	Hard	17.py
18	Google	Hard	18.py
19	Facebook	Medium	19.py
20	Google	Easy	20.py	20.java
21	Snapchat	Easy	21.py
22	Microsoft	Medium	22.py
23	Google	Easy	23.py
24	Google	Medium
25	Facebook	Hard	25.py
26	Google	Medium	26.py	26.java
27	Facebook	Easy	27.py	27.java
28	Palantir	Medium
29	Amazon	Easy	29.py
30	Facebook	Medium	30.py
31	Google	Easy	31.py	31.java
32	Jane Street	Hard
33	Microsoft	Easy	33.py	33.java
34	Quora	Medium	34.py
35	Google	Hard	35.py	35.java
36	Dropbox	Medium	36.py
37	Google	Easy	37.py
38	Microsoft	Hard
39	Dropbox	Medium	39.py
40	Google	Hard	40.py
41	Facebook	Medium	41.py
42	Google	Hard	42.py
43	Amazon	Easy	43.py	43.java
44	Google	Medium	44.py
45	Two Sigma	Easy	45.py
46	Amazon	Hard	46.py
47	Facebook	Easy	47.py
48	Google	Medium
49	Amazon	Medium	49.py
50	Microsoft	Easy	50.py
51	Facebook	Medium	51.py
52	Google	Hard	52.py
53	Apple	Medium	53.py
54	Dropbox	Hard
55	Microsoft	Easy
56	Google	Medium
57	Amazon	Medium	57.py
58	Amazon	Medium	58.py
59	Google	Hard
60	Facebook	Medium	60.py
61	Google	Medium	61.py
62	Facebook	Medium
63	Microsoft	Easy	63.py
64	Google	Hard
65	Amazon	Easy	65.py
66	Square	Medium	66.py
67	Google	Hard
68	Google	Medium	68.py
69	Facebook	Easy	69.py
70	Microsoft	Easy	70.py
71	Two Sigma	Easy	71.py
72	Google	Hard
73	Google	Easy	73.py	73.java
74	Apple	Medium	74.py
75	Microsoft	Hard	75.py
76	Google	Medium
77	Snapchat	Easy	77.py
78	Google	Medium	78.py
79	Facebook	Medium	79.py
80	Google	Easy	80.py
81	Yelp	Easy	81.py
82	Microsoft	Easy
83	Google	Medium	83.py
84	Amazon	Medium
85	Facebook	Medium	85.py
86	Google	Medium	86.py
87	Uber	Hard	87.py
88	ContextLogic	Medium	88.py
89	LinkedIn	Medium	89.py
90	Google	Medium	90.py
91	Dropbox	Easy	91.py
92	Airbnb	Hard
93	Apple	Hard
94	Google	Easy
95	Palantir	Hard
96	Microsoft	Easy	96.py
97	Stripe	Medium
98	Coursera	Easy
99	Microsoft	Medium
100	Google	Easy	100.py
101	Alibaba	Easy	101.py
102	Lyft	Medium	102.py
103	Square	Medium	103.py
104	Google	Easy	104.py	104.java
105	Facebook	Easy
106	Pinterest	Medium	106.py	106.java
107	Microsoft	Easy	107.py	107.java
108	Google	Easy	108.py
109	Cisco	Medium	109.py
110	Facebook	Medium	110.py
111	Google	Hard	111.py
112	Twitter	Hard	112.py
113	Google	Medium	113.py
114	Facebook	Hard	114.py
115	Google	Hard
116	Jane Street	Medium
117	Facebook	Easy	117.py
118	Google	Easy	118.py
119	Google	Medium	119.py
120	Microsoft	Medium
121	Google	Hard
122	Zillow	Medium	122.py	122.java
123	LinkedIn	Hard
124	Microsoft	Easy
125	Google	Easy	125.py
126	Facebook	Medium	126.py	126.java
127	Microsoft	Easy	127.py	127.java
128		Medium
129		Medium	129.py	129.java
130	Facebook	Medium
131	Snapchat	Medium
132	Riot Games	Easy	132.py
133	Amazon	Medium	133.py
134	Facebook	Easy	134.py
135	Apple	Easy	135.py	135.java
136	Google	Medium
137	Amazon	Medium	137.py	137.java
138	Google	Hard	138.py
139	Google	Medium
140	Facebook	Medium	140.py
141	Microsoft	Hard	141.py
142	Google	Hard
143	Amazon	Medium	143.py	143.java
144	Google	Medium	144.py
145	Google	Easy	145.py
146	BufferBox	Medium
147		Hard	147.py	147.java
148	Apple	Medium	148.py	148.java
149	Goldman Sachs	Hard	149.py
150	LinkedIn	Hard	150.py
151		Medium
152	Triplebyte	Medium	152.py
153		Hard	153.py
154	Amazon	Easy	154.py
155	MongoDB	Medium	155.py	155.java
156	Facebook	Medium	156.py
157	Amazon	Easy	157.py
158	Slack	Medium
159	Google	Easy	159.py	159.java
160	Uber	Hard
161	Facebook	Easy
162	Square	Medium
163	Jane Street	Hard	163.py	163.java
164	Google	Medium	164.py	164.java
165	Google	Medium	165.py	165.java
166	Uber	Medium	166.py
167	Airbnb	Easy	167.py
168	Facebook	Medium	168.py
169	Google	Medium
170	Facebook	Medium
171	Amazon	Easy
172	Dropbox	Medium	172.py
173	Stripe	Easy
174	Microsoft	Medium
175	Google	Easy	175.py
176	Bloomberg	Easy	176.py
177	Airbnb	Easy	177.py
178	Two Sigma	Hard
179	Google	Medium
180	Google	Medium	180.py	180.java
181	Google	Hard
182	Facebook	Medium
183	Twitch	Hard
184	Amazon	Easy	184.py	184.java
185	Google	Easy
186	Microsoft	Hard
187	Google	Easy
188	Google	Medium
189	Google	Easy	189.py	189.java
190	Facebook	Medium	190.py	190.java
191	Stripe	Easy
192	Google	Medium	192.py	192.java
193	Affirm	Hard
194	Facebook	Easy
195	Google	Hard	195.py
196	Apple	Easy	196.py
197	Amazon	Easy	197.py
198	Google	Medium
199	Facebook	Hard	199.py
200	Microsoft	Hard	200.py
201	Google	Easy	201.py
202	Palantir	Easy	202.py
203	Uber	Medium	203.py
204	Amazon	Easy
205	IBM	Easy
206	Twitter	Easy	206.py
207	Dropbox	Medium
208	LinkedIn	Medium	208.py
209	Youtube	Hard
210	Apple	Easy	210.py
211	Microsoft	Medium	211.py
212	Dropbox	Easy	212.py
213	Snapchat	Medium
214	Stripe	Easy	214.py
215	Yelp	Medium
216	Facebook	Medium
217	Oracle	Hard
218	Yahoo	Medium
219	Salesforce	Hard
220	Square	Medium
221	Zillow	Easy
222	Quora	Medium
223	Palantir	Hard
224	Amazon	Easy
225	Bloomberg	Easy
226	Airbnb	Hard
227	Facebook	Easy
228	Twitter	Medium
229	Flipkart	Medium
230	Goldman Sachs	Medium
231	IBM	Easy	231.py
232	Google	Easy	232.py
233	Apple	Easy	233.py
234	Microsoft	Hard
235	Facebook	Hard
236	Nvidia	Medium
237	Amazon	Easy
238	MIT	Hard
239	Uber	Medium
240	Spotify	Hard
241	Palantir	Easy	241.py
242	Twitter	Hard	242.py
243	Etsy	Medium
244	Square	Easy	244.py
245	Yelp	Medium
246	Dropbox	Medium
247	Paypal	Easy
248	Nvidia	Hard	248.py
249	Salesforce	Hard
250	Google	Medium
251	Amazon	Medium
252	Palantir	Easy	252.py
253	Paypal	Medium
254	Yahoo	Medium
255	Microsoft	Easy
256	Fitbit	Medium
257	WhapsApp	Easy	257.py

Problem descriptions

#1

Given a list of numbers and a number k, return whether any two numbers from the list add up to k.

For example, given [10, 15, 3, 7] and k of 17, return true since 10 + 7 is 17.

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#2

Given an array of integers , return a new array such that each element at index i of the new array is the product of all the numbers in the original array except the one at i.

For example,

if our input was [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], the expected output would be [120, 60, 40, 30, 24]
If our input was [3, 2, 1], the expected output would be [2, 3, 6]

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#3

Given the root to a binary tree, implement serialize(root), which serializes the tree into a string, and deserialize(s), which deserializes the string back into the tree.

Example: given a Node class

class Node:
    def __init__(self, val, left=None, right=None):
        self.val = val
        self.left = left
        self.right = right

The following test should pass:

node = Node('root', Node('left', Node('left.left')), Node('right'))
assert deserialize(serialize(node)).left.left.val == 'left.left'

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#4

Given an array of integers (The array can contain duplicates and negative numbers as well.), find the first missing positive integer in linear time and constant space, i.e find the lowest positive integer that does not exist in the array.

For example, the input [3, 4, -1, 1] should give 2.
The input [1, 2, 0] should give 3.

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#5

cons(a, b) constructs a pair, and car(pair) and cdr(pair) returns the first and last element of that pair. For example, car(cons(3, 4)) returns 3, and cdr(cons(3, 4)) returns 4.

Given this implementation of cons:

def cons(a, b):
    def pair(f):
        return f(a, b)
    return pair

Implement car and cdr.

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#6

An XOR linked list is a more memory efficient doubly linked list. Instead of each node holding next and prev fields, it holds a field named both, which is an XOR of the next node and the previous node. Implement an XOR linked list; it has an add(element) which adds the element to the end, and a get(index) which returns the node at index.

If using a language that has no pointers (such as Python), you can assume you have access to get_pointer and dereference_pointer functions that converts between nodes and memory addresses.

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#7

Given the mapping a = 1, b = 2, ... z = 26, and an encoded message, count the number of ways it can be decoded.

For example, the message '111' would give 3, since it could be decoded as 'aaa', 'ka', and 'ak'.

You can assume that the messages are decodable. For example, '001' is not allowed.

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#8

A unival tree (which stands for "universal value") is a tree where all nodes under it have the same value.

Given the root to a binary tree, count the number of unival subtrees.

For example, the following tree has 5 unival subtrees:

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#9

Given a list of integers, write a function that returns the largest sum of non-adjacent numbers. Numbers can be 0 or negative.

For example, [2, 4, 6, 2, 5] should return 13, since we pick 2, 6, and 5. [5, 1, 1, 5] should return 10, since we pick 5 and 5.

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#10

Implement a job scheduler which takes in a function f and an integer n, and calls f after n milliseconds.

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#11

Implement an autocomplete system. That is, given a query string s and a set of all possible query strings, return all strings in the set that have s as a prefix.

For example, given the query string de and the set of strings [dog, deer, deal], return [deer, deal].

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#12

There exists a staircase with N steps, and you can climb up either 1 or 2 steps at a time. Given N, write a function that returns the number of unique ways you can climb the staircase. The order of the steps matters.

For example, if N is 4, then there are 5 unique ways:

1, 1, 1, 1
2, 1, 1
1, 2, 1
1, 1, 2
2, 2

What if, instead of being able to climb 1 or 2 steps at a time, you could climb any number from a set of positive integers X? For example, if X = {1, 3, 5}, you could climb 1, 3, or 5 steps at a time.

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#13

Given an integer k and a string s, find the length of the longest substring that contains at most k distinct characters.

For example, given s = "abcba" and k = 2, the longest substring with k distinct characters is "bcb".

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#14

The area of a circle is defined as πr². Estimate π to 3 decimal places using a Monte Carlo method.

Hint: The basic equation of a circle is x² + y² = r².

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#15

Given a stream of elements too large to store in memory, pick a random element from the stream with uniform probability.

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#16

You run an e-commerce website and want to record the last N order ids in a log. Implement a data structure to accomplish this, with the following API:

record(order_id): adds the order_id to the log
get_last(i): gets the ith last element from the log. i is guaranteed to be smaller than or equal to N.

You should be as efficient with time and space as possible.

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#17

Suppose we represent our file system by a string in the following manner:

The string "dir\n\tsubdir1\n\tsubdir2\n\t\tfile.ext" represents:

dir
    subdir1
    subdir2
        file.ext

The directory dir contains an empty sub-directory subdir1 and a sub-directory subdir2 containing a file file.ext.

The string "dir\n\tsubdir1\n\t\tfile1.ext\n\t\tsubsubdir1\n\tsubdir2\n\t\tsubsubdir2\n\t\t\tfile2.ext" represents:

dir
    subdir1
        file1.ext
        subsubdir1
    subdir2
        subsubdir2
            file2.ext

The directory dir contains two sub-directories subdir1 and subdir2. subdir1 contains a file file1.ext and an empty second-level sub-directory subsubdir1. subdir2 contains a second-level sub-directory subsubdir2 containing a file file2.ext.

We are interested in finding the longest (number of characters) absolute path to a file within our file system. For example, in the second example above, the longest absolute path is "dir/subdir2/subsubdir2/file2.ext", and its length is 32 (not including the double quotes).

Given a string representing the file system in the above format, return the length of the longest absolute path to a file in the abstracted file system. If there is no file in the system, return 0.

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#18

Given an array of integers and a number k, where 1 <= k <= length of the array, compute the maximum values of each subarray of length k.

For example, given array = [10, 5, 2, 7, 8, 7] and k = 3, we should get: [10, 7, 8, 8], since:

    10 = max(10, 5, 2)
    7 = max(5, 2, 7)
    8 = max(2, 7, 8)
    8 = max(7, 8, 7)

Do this in O(n) time and O(k) space. You can modify the input array in-place and you do not need to store the results. You can simply print them out as you compute them.

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#19

A builder is looking to build a row of N houses that can be of K different colors. He has a goal of minimizing cost while ensuring that no two neighboring houses are of the same color.

Given an N by K matrix where the nth row and kth column represents the cost to build the nth house with kth color, return the minimum cost which achieves this goal.

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#20

Given two singly linked lists that intersect at some point, find the intersecting node. The lists are non-cyclical.

For example, given A = 3 -> 7 -> 8 -> 10 and B = 99 -> 1 -> 8 -> 10, return the node with value 8.

In this example, assume nodes with the same value are the exact same node objects.

Do this in O(M + N) time (where M and N are the lengths of the lists) and constant space.

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#21

Given an array of time intervals (start, end) for classroom lectures (possibly overlapping), find the minimum number of rooms required.

For example, given [(30, 75), (0, 50), (60, 150)], you should return 2.

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#22

Given a dictionary of words and a string made up of those words (no spaces), return the original sentence in a list. If there is more than one possible reconstruction, return any of them. If there is no possible reconstruction, then return null.

For example, given the set of words 'quick', 'brown', 'the', 'fox', and the string "thequickbrownfox", you should return ['the', 'quick', 'brown', 'fox'].

Given the set of words 'bed', 'bath', 'bedbath', 'and', 'beyond', and the string "bedbathandbeyond", return either ['bed', 'bath', 'and', 'beyond] or ['bedbath', 'and', 'beyond'].

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#23

You are given an M by N matrix consisting of booleans that represents a board. Each True boolean represents a wall. Each False boolean represents a tile you can walk on.

Given this matrix, a start coordinate, and an end coordinate, return the minimum number of steps required to reach the end coordinate from the start. If there is no possible path, then return null. You can move up, left, down, and right. You cannot move through walls. You cannot wrap around the edges of the board.

For example, given the following board:

[[f, f, f, f],
[t, t, f, t],
[f, f, f, f],
[f, f, f, f]]

and start = (3, 0) (bottom left) and end = (0, 0) (top left), the minimum number of steps required to reach the end is 7, since we would need to go through (1, 2) because there is a wall everywhere else on the second row.

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#24

Implement locking in a binary tree. A binary tree node can be locked or unlocked only if all of its descendants or ancestors are not locked.

Design a binary tree node class with the following methods:

is_locked, which returns whether the node is locked lock, which attempts to lock the node. If it cannot be locked, then it should return false. Otherwise, it should lock it and return true.
unlock, which unlocks the node. If it cannot be unlocked, then it should return false. Otherwise, it should unlock it and return true.

You may augment the node to add parent pointers or any other property you would like. You may assume the class is used in a single-threaded program, so there is no need for actual locks or mutexes. Each method should run in O(h), where h is the height of the tree.

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#25

Implement regular expression matching with the following special characters:

'.' (period) which matches any single character
'*' (asterisk) which matches zero or more of the preceding element That is, implement a function that takes in a string and a valid regular expression and returns whether or not the string matches the regular expression.

For example, given the regular expression "ra." and the string "ray", your function should return true. The same regular expression on the string "raymond" should return false.

Given the regular expression ".*at" and the string "chat", your function should return true. The same regular expression on the string "chats" should return false.

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#26

Given a singly linked list and an integer k, remove the kth last element from the list. k is guaranteed to be smaller than the length of the list.

The list is very long, so making more than one pass is prohibitively expensive.

Do this in constant space and in one pass.

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#27

Given a string of round, curly, and square open and closing brackets, return whether the brackets are balanced (well-formed).

For example, given the string "([])", you should return true.

Given the string "([)]" or "((()", you should return false.

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#28

Write an algorithm to justify text. Given a sequence of words and an integer line length k, return a list of strings which represents each line, fully justified.

More specifically, you should have as many words as possible in each line. There should be at least one space between each word. Pad extra spaces when necessary so that each line has exactly length k. Spaces should be distributed as equally as possible, with the extra spaces, if any, distributed starting from the left.

If you can only fit one word on a line, then you should pad the right-hand side with spaces.

Each word is guaranteed not to be longer than k.

For example, given the list of words ["the", "quick", "brown", "fox", "jumps", "over", "the", "lazy", "dog"] and k = 16, you should return the following:

["the  quick brown", # 1 extra space on the left
"fox  jumps  over", # 2 extra spaces distributed evenly
"the   lazy   dog"] # 4 extra spaces distributed evenly

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#29

Run-length encoding is a fast and simple method of encoding strings. The basic idea is to represent repeated successive characters as a single count and character. For example, the string "AAAABBBCCDAA" would be encoded as "4A3B2C1D2A".

Implement run-length encoding and decoding. You can assume the string to be encoded have no digits and consists solely of alphabetic characters. You can assume the string to be decoded is valid.

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#30

You are given an array of non-negative integers that represents a two-dimensional elevation map where each element is unit-width wall and the integer is the height. Suppose it will rain and all spots between two walls get filled up.

Compute how many units of water remain trapped on the map in O(N) time and O(1) space.

For example, given the input [2, 1, 2], we can hold 1 unit of water in the middle.

Given the input [3, 0, 1, 3, 0, 5], we can hold 3 units in the first index, 2 in the second, and 3 in the fourth index (we cannot hold 5 since it would run off to the left), so we can trap 8 units of water.

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#31

The edit distance between two strings refers to the minimum number of character insertions, deletions, and substitutions required to change one string to the other. For example, the edit distance between “kitten” and “sitting” is three: substitute the “k” for “s”, substitute the “e” for “i”, and append a “g”.

Given two strings, compute the edit distance between them.

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#32

Suppose you are given a table of currency exchange rates, represented as a 2D array. Determine whether there is a possible arbitrage: that is, whether there is some sequence of trades you can make, starting with some amount A of any currency, so that you can end up with some amount greater than A of that currency.

There are no transaction costs and you can trade fractional quantities.

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#33

Compute the running median of a sequence of numbers. That is, given a stream of numbers, print out the median of the list so far on each new element.

Recall that the median of an even-numbered list is the average of the two middle numbers.

For example, given the sequence [2, 1, 5, 7, 2, 0, 5], your algorithm should print out:

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#34

Given a string, find the palindrome that can be made by inserting the fewest number of characters as possible anywhere in the word. If there is more than one palindrome of minimum length that can be made, return the lexicographically earliest one (the first one alphabetically).

For example, given the string "race", you should return "ecarace", since we can add three letters to it (which is the smallest amount to make a palindrome). There are seven other palindromes that can be made from "race" by adding three letters, but "ecarace" comes first alphabetically.

As another example, given the string "google", you should return "elgoogle".

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#35

Given an array of strictly the characters 'R', 'G', and 'B', segregate the values of the array so that all the Rs come first, the Gs come second, and the Bs come last. You can only swap elements of the array.

Do this in linear time and in-place.

For example, given the array ['G', 'B', 'R', 'R', 'B', 'R', 'G'], it should become ['R', 'R', 'R', 'G', 'G', 'B', 'B'].

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#36

Given the root to a binary search tree, find the second largest node in the tree.

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#37

The power set of a set is the set of all its subsets. Write a function that, given a set, generates its power set.

For example, given the set {1, 2, 3}, it should return {{}, {1}, {2}, {3}, {1, 2}, {1, 3}, {2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}}.

You may also use a list or array to represent a set.

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#38

You have an N by N board. Write a function that, given N, returns the number of possible arrangements of the board where N queens can be placed on the board without threatening each other, i.e. no two queens share the same row, column, or diagonal.

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#39

Conway's Game of Life takes place on an infinite two-dimensional board of square cells. Each cell is either dead or alive, and at each tick, the following rules apply:

Any live cell with less than two live neighbours dies. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours remains living. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell. A cell neighbours another cell if it is horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent.

Implement Conway's Game of Life. It should be able to be initialized with a starting list of live cell coordinates and the number of steps it should run for. Once initialized, it should print out the board state at each step. Since it's an infinite board, print out only the relevant coordinates, i.e. from the top-leftmost live cell to bottom-rightmost live cell.

You can represent a live cell with an asterisk (*) and a dead cell with a dot (.).

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#40

Given an array of integers where every integer occurs three times except for one integer, which only occurs once, find and return the non-duplicated integer.

For example, given [6, 1, 3, 3, 3, 6, 6], return 1. Given [13, 19, 13, 13], return 19.

Do this in O(N) time and O(1) space.

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#41

Given an unordered list of flights taken by someone, each represented as (origin, destination) pairs, and a starting airport, compute the person's itinerary. If no such itinerary exists, return null. If there are multiple possible itineraries, return the lexicographically smallest one. All flights must be used in the itinerary.

For example, given the list of flights [('SFO', 'HKO'), ('YYZ', 'SFO'), ('YUL', 'YYZ'), ('HKO', 'ORD')] and starting airport 'YUL', you should return the list ['YUL', 'YYZ', 'SFO', 'HKO', 'ORD'].

Given the list of flights [('SFO', 'COM'), ('COM', 'YYZ')] and starting airport 'COM', you should return null.

Given the list of flights [('A', 'B'), ('A', 'C'), ('B', 'C'), ('C', 'A')] and starting airport 'A', you should return the list ['A', 'B', 'C', 'A', 'C'] even though ['A', 'C', 'A', 'B', 'C'] is also a valid itinerary. However, the first one is lexicographically smaller.

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#42

Given a list of integers S and a target number k, write a function that returns a subset of S that adds up to k. If such a subset cannot be made, then return null.

Integers can appear more than once in the list. You may assume all numbers in the list are positive.

For example, given S = [12, 1, 61, 5, 9, 2] and k = 24, return [12, 9, 2, 1] since it sums up to 24.

#43

Implement a stack that has the following methods:

push(val), which pushes an element onto the stack
pop(), which pops off and returns the topmost element of the stack. If there are no elements in the stack, then it should throw an error or return null.
max(), which returns the maximum value in the stack currently. If there are no elements in the stack, then it should throw an error or return null.

Each method should run in constant time.

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#44

We can determine how "out of order" an array A is by counting the number of inversions it has. Two elements A[i] and A[j] form an inversion if A[i] > A[j] but i < j. That is, a smaller element appears after a larger element.

Given an array, count the number of inversions it has. Do this faster than O(N^2) time.

You may assume each element in the array is distinct.

For example, a sorted list has zero inversions. The array [2, 4, 1, 3, 5] has three inversions: (2, 1), (4, 1), and (4, 3). The array [5, 4, 3, 2, 1] has ten inversions: every distinct pair forms an inversion.

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#45

Using a function rand5() that returns an integer from 1 to 5 (inclusive) with uniform probability, implement a function rand7() that returns an integer from 1 to 7 (inclusive).

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#46

Given a string, find the longest palindromic contiguous substring. If there are more than one with the maximum length, return any one.

For example, the longest palindromic substring of "aabcdcb" is "bcdcb". The longest palindromic substring of "bananas" is "anana".

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#47

Given a array of numbers representing the stock prices of a company in chronological order, write a function that calculates the maximum profit you could have made from buying and selling that stock once. You must buy before you can sell it.

For example, given [9, 11, 8, 5, 7, 10], you should return 5, since you could buy the stock at 5 dollars and sell it at 10 dollars.

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#48

Given pre-order and in-order traversals of a binary tree, write a function to reconstruct the tree.

For example, given the following preorder traversal:

[a, b, d, e, c, f, g]

And the following inorder traversal:

[d, b, e, a, f, c, g]

You should return the following tree:

    a
   / \
  b   c
 / \ / \
d  e f  g

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#49

Given an array of numbers, find the maximum sum of any contiguous subarray of the array.

For example, given the array [34, -50, 42, 14, -5, 86], the maximum sum would be 137, since we would take elements 42, 14, -5, and 86.

Given the array [-5, -1, -8, -9], the maximum sum would be 0, since we would not take any elements.

Do this in O(N) time.

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#50

Suppose an arithmetic expression is given as a binary tree. Each leaf is an integer and each internal node is one of '+', '−', '∗', or '/'.

Given the root to such a tree, write a function to evaluate it.

For example, given the following tree:

    *
   / \
  +    +
 / \  / \
3  2  4  5

You should return 45, as it is (3 + 2) * (4 + 5).

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#51

Given a function that generates perfectly random numbers between 1 and k (inclusive), where k is an input, write a function that shuffles a deck of cards represented as an array using only swaps.

It should run in O(N) time.

Hint: Make sure each one of the 52! permutations of the deck is equally likely.

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#52

Implement an LRU (Least Recently Used) cache. It should be able to be initialized with a cache size n, and contain the following methods:

set(key, value): sets key to value. If there are already n items in the cache and we are adding a new item, then it should also remove the least recently used item. get(key): gets the value at key. If no such key exists, return null.

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#53

Implement a queue using two stacks. Recall that a queue is a FIFO (first-in, first-out) data structure with the following methods: enqueue, which inserts an element into the queue, and dequeue, which removes it.

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#54

Sudoku is a puzzle where you're given a partially-filled 9 by 9 grid with digits. The objective is to fill the grid with the constraint that every row, column, and box (3 by 3 subgrid) must contain all of the digits from 1 to 9.

Implement an efficient sudoku solver.

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#55

Implement a URL shortener with the following methods:

shorten(url), which shortens the url into a six-character alphanumeric string, such as zLg6wl.
restore(short), which expands the shortened string into the original url. If no such shortened string exists, return null.

Hint: What if we enter the same URL twice?

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#56

Given an undirected graph represented as an adjacency matrix and an integer k, write a function to determine whether each vertex in the graph can be colored such that no two adjacent vertices share the same color using at most k colors.

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#57

Given a string s and an integer k, break up the string into multiple lines such that each line has a length of k or less. You must break it up so that words don't break across lines. Each line has to have the maximum possible amount of words. If there's no way to break the text up, then return null.

You can assume that there are no spaces at the ends of the string and that there is exactly one space between each word.

For example, given the string "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" and k = 10, you should return: ["the quick", "brown fox", "jumps over", "the lazy", "dog"]. No string in the list has a length of more than 10.

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#58

An sorted array of integers was rotated an unknown number of times.

Given such an array, find the index of the element in the array in faster than linear time. If the element doesn't exist in the array, return null.

For example, given the array [13, 18, 25, 2, 8, 10] and the element 8, return 4 (the index of 8 in the array).

You can assume all the integers in the array are unique.

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#59

Implement a file syncing algorithm for two computers over a low-bandwidth network. What if we know the files in the two computers are mostly the same?

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#60

Given a multiset of integers, return whether it can be partitioned into two subsets whose sums are the same.

For example, given the multiset {15, 5, 20, 10, 35, 15, 10}, it would return true, since we can split it up into {15, 5, 10, 15, 10} and {20, 35}, which both add up to 55.

Given the multiset {15, 5, 20, 10, 35}, it would return false, since we can't split it up into two subsets that add up to the same sum.

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#61

Implement integer exponentiation. That is, implement the pow(x, y) function, where x and y are integers and returns x^y.

Do this faster than the naive method of repeated multiplication.

For example, pow(2, 10) should return 1024.

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#62

There is an N by M matrix of zeroes. Given N and M, write a function to count the number of ways of starting at the top-left corner and getting to the bottom-right corner. You can only move right or down.

For example, given a 2 by 2 matrix, you should return 2, since there are two ways to get to the bottom-right:

Right, then down
Down, then right

Given a 5 by 5 matrix, there are 70 ways to get to the bottom-right.

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#63

Given a 2D matrix of characters and a target word, write a function that returns whether the word can be found in the matrix by going left-to-right, or up-to-down.

For example, given the following matrix:

[['F', 'A', 'C', 'I'],
 ['O', 'B', 'Q', 'P'],
 ['A', 'N', 'O', 'B'],
 ['M', 'A', 'S', 'S']]

and the target word 'FOAM', you should return true, since it's the leftmost column. Similarly, given the target word 'MASS', you should return true, since it's the last row.

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#64

A knight's tour is a sequence of moves by a knight on a chessboard such that all squares are visited once.

Given N, write a function to return the number of knight's tours on an N by N chessboard.

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#65

Given a N by M matrix of numbers, print out the matrix in a clockwise spiral.

For example, given the following matrix:

[[1,  2,  3,  4,  5],
 [6,  7,  8,  9,  10],
 [11, 12, 13, 14, 15],
 [16, 17, 18, 19, 20]]

You should print out the following:

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#66

Assume you have access to a function toss_biased() which returns 0 or 1 with a probability that's not 50-50 (but also not 0-100 or 100-0). You do not know the bias of the coin.

Write a function to simulate an unbiased coin toss.

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#67

Implement an LFU (Least Frequently Used) cache. It should be able to be initialized with a cache size n, and contain the following methods:

set(key, value): sets key to value. If there are already n items in the cache and we are adding a new item, then it should also remove the least frequently used item. If there is a tie, then the least recently used key should be removed.
get(key): gets the value at key. If no such key exists, return null.

Each operation should run in O(1) time.

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#68

On our special chessboard, two bishops attack each other if they share the same diagonal. This includes bishops that have another bishop located between them, i.e. bishops can attack through pieces.

You are given N bishops, represented as (row, column) tuples on a M by M chessboard. Write a function to count the number of pairs of bishops that attack each other. The ordering of the pair doesn't matter: (1, 2) is considered the same as (2, 1).

For example, given M = 5 and the list of bishops:

(0, 0)
(1, 2)
(2, 2)
(4, 0)

The board would look like this:

[b 0 0 0 0]
[0 0 b 0 0]
[0 0 b 0 0]
[0 0 0 0 0]
[b 0 0 0 0]

You should return 2, since bishops 1 and 3 attack each other, as well as bishops 3 and 4.

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#69

Given a list of integers, return the largest product that can be made by multiplying any three integers.

For example, if the list is [-10, -10, 5, 2], we should return 500, since that's -10 * -10 * 5.

You can assume the list has at least three integers.

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#70

A number is considered perfect if its digits sum up to exactly 10.

Given a positive integer n, return the n-th perfect number.

For example, given 1, you should return 19. Given 2, you should return 28.

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#71

Using a function rand7() that returns an integer from 1 to 7 (inclusive) with uniform probability, implement a function rand5() that returns an integer from 1 to 5 (inclusive).

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#72

In a directed graph, each node is assigned an uppercase letter. We define a path's value as the number of most frequently-occurring letter along that path. For example, if a path in the graph goes through "ABACA", the value of the path is 3, since there are 3 occurrences of 'A' on the path.

Given a graph with n nodes and m directed edges, return the largest value path of the graph. If the largest value is infinite, then return null.

The graph is represented with a string and an edge list. The i-th character represents the uppercase letter of the i-th node. Each tuple in the edge list (i, j) means there is a directed edge from the i-th node to the j-th node. Self-edges are possible, as well as multi-edges.

For example, the following input graph:

ABACA

[(0, 1),
 (0, 2),
 (2, 3),
 (3, 4)]

Would have maximum value 3 using the path of vertices [0, 2, 3, 4], (A, A, C, A).

The following input graph:

A

[(0, 0)]

Should return null, since we have an infinite loop.

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#73

Given the head of a singly linked list, reverse it in-place.

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#74

Suppose you have a multiplication table that is N by N. That is, a 2D array where the value at the i-th row and j-th column is (i + 1) * (j + 1) (if 0-indexed) or i * j (if 1-indexed).

Given integers N and X, write a function that returns the number of times X appears as a value in an N by N multiplication table.

For example, given N = 6 and X = 12, you should return 4, since the multiplication table looks like this:

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

| 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 |

| 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 18 |

| 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 |

| 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 30 |

| 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 | 36 |

And there are 4 12's in the table.

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#75

Given an array of numbers, find the length of the longest increasing subsequence in the array. The subsequence does not necessarily have to be contiguous.

For example, given the array [0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 10, 6, 14, 1, 9, 5, 13, 3, 11, 7, 15], the longest increasing subsequence has length 6: it is 0, 2, 6, 9, 11, 15.

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#76

You are given an N by M 2D matrix of lowercase letters. Determine the minimum number of columns that can be removed to ensure that each row is ordered from top to bottom lexicographically. That is, the letter at each column is lexicographically later as you go down each row. It does not matter whether each row itself is ordered lexicographically.

For example, given the following table:

cba
daf
ghi

This is not ordered because of the a in the center. We can remove the second column to make it ordered:

ca
df
gi

So your function should return 1, since we only needed to remove 1 column.

As another example, given the following table:

abcdef

Your function should return 0, since the rows are already ordered (there's only one row).

As another example, given the following table:

zyx
wvu
tsr

Your function should return 3, since we would need to remove all the columns to order it.

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#77

Given a list of possibly overlapping intervals, return a new list of intervals where all overlapping intervals have been merged.

The input list is not necessarily ordered in any way.

For example, given [(1, 3), (5, 8), (4, 10), (20, 25)], you should return [(1, 3), (4, 10), (20, 25)].

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#78

Given k sorted singly linked lists, write a function to merge all the lists into one sorted singly linked list.

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#79

Given an array of integers, write a function to determine whether the array could become non-decreasing by modifying at most 1 element.

For example, given the array [10, 5, 7], you should return true, since we can modify the 10 into a 1 to make the array non-decreasing.

Given the array [10, 5, 1], you should return false, since we can't modify any one element to get a non-decreasing array.

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#80

Given the root of a binary tree, return a deepest node. For example, in the following tree, return d.

    a
   / \
  b   c
 /
d

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#81

Given a mapping of digits to letters (as in a phone number), and a digit string, return all possible letters the number could represent. You can assume each valid number in the mapping is a single digit.

For example if {“2”: [“a”, “b”, “c”], 3: [“d”, “e”, “f”], …} then “23” should return [“ad”, “ae”, “af”, “bd”, “be”, “bf”, “cd”, “ce”, “cf"].

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#82

Using a read7() method that returns 7 characters from a file, implement readN(n) which reads n characters.

For example, given a file with the content “Hello world”, three read7() returns “Hello w”, “orld” and then “”.

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#83

Invert a binary tree.

For example, given the following tree:

    a
   / \
  b   c
 / \  /
d   e f

should become:

  a
 / \
 c  b
 \  / \
  f e  d

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#84

Given a matrix of 1s and 0s, return the number of "islands" in the matrix. A 1 represents land and 0 represents water, so an island is a group of 1s that are neighboring whose perimeter is surrounded by water.

For example, this matrix has 4 islands.

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#85

Given three 32-bit integers x, y, and b, return x if b is 1 and y if b is 0, using only mathematical or bit operations. You can assume b can only be 1 or 0.

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#86

Given a string of parentheses, write a function to compute the minimum number of parentheses to be removed to make the string valid (i.e. each open parenthesis is eventually closed).

For example, given the string "()())()", you should return 1. Given the string ")(", you should return 2, since we must remove all of them.

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#87

A rule looks like this:

A NE B

This means this means point A is located northeast of point B.

A SW C

means that point A is southwest of C.

Given a list of rules, check if the sum of the rules validate. For example:

A N B
B NE C
C N A

does not validate, since A cannot be both north and south of C.

A NW B
A N B

is considered valid.

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#88

Implement division of two positive integers without using the division, multiplication, or modulus operators. Return the quotient as an integer, ignoring the remainder.

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#89

Determine whether a tree is a valid binary search tree.

A binary search tree is a tree with two children, left and right, and satisfies the constraint that the key in the left child must be less than or equal to the root and the key in the right child must be greater than or equal to the root.

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#90

Given an integer n and a list of integers l, write a function that randomly generates a number from 0 to n-1 that isn't in l (uniform).

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#91

What does the below code snippet print out? How can we fix the anonymous functions to behave as we'd expect?

functions = []
for i in range(10):
    functions.append(lambda : i)

for f in functions:
    print(f())

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#92

We're given a hashmap associating each courseId key with a list of courseIds values, which represents that the prerequisites of courseId are courseIds. Return a sorted ordering of courses such that we can finish all courses.

Return null if there is no such ordering.

For example, given {'CSC300': ['CSC100', 'CSC200'], 'CSC200': ['CSC100'], 'CSC100': []}, should return ['CSC100', 'CSC200', 'CSCS300'].

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#93

Given a tree, find the largest tree/subtree that is a BST.

Given a tree, return the size of the largest tree/subtree that is a BST.

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#94

Given a binary tree of integers, find the maximum path sum between two nodes. The path must go through at least one node, and does not need to go through the root.

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#95

Given a number represented by a list of digits, find the next greater permutation of a number, in terms of lexicographic ordering. If there is not greater permutation possible, return the permutation with the lowest value/ordering.

For example, the list [1,2,3] should return [1,3,2]. The list [1,3,2] should return [2,1,3]. The list [3,2,1] should return [1,2,3].

Can you perform the operation without allocating extra memory (disregarding the input memory)?

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#96

Given a number in the form of a list of digits, return all possible permutations.

For example, given [1,2,3], return

[[1,2,3],[1,3,2],[2,1,3],[2,3,1],[3,1,2],[3,2,1]].

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#97

Write a map implementation with a get function that lets you retrieve the value of a key at a particular time.

It should contain the following methods:

set(key, value, time): sets key to value for t = time.
get(key, time): gets the key at t = time.

The map should work like this. If we set a key at a particular time, it will maintain that value forever or until it gets set at a later time. In other words, when we get a key at a time, it should return the value that was set for that key set at the most recent time.

Consider the following examples:

d.set(1, 1, 0) # set key 1 to value 1 at time 0
d.set(1, 2, 2) # set key 1 to value 2 at time 2
d.get(1, 1) # get key 1 at time 1 should be 1
d.get(1, 3) # get key 1 at time 3 should be 2

d.set(1, 1, 5) # set key 1 to value 1 at time 5
d.get(1, 0) # get key 1 at time 0 should be null
d.get(1, 10) # get key 1 at time 10 should be 1

d.set(1, 1, 0) # set key 1 to value 1 at time 0
d.set(1, 2, 0) # set key 1 to value 2 at time 0
d.get(1, 0) # get key 1 at time 0 should be 2

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#98

Given a 2D board of characters and a word, find if the word exists in the grid.

The word can be constructed from letters of sequentially adjacent cell, where "adjacent" cells are those horizontally or vertically neighboring. The same letter cell may not be used more than once.

For example, given the following board:

[
  ['A','B','C','E'],
  ['S','F','C','S'],
  ['A','D','E','E']
]

exists(board, "ABCCED") returns true, exists(board, "SEE") returns true, exists(board, "ABCB") returns false.

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#99

Given an unsorted array of integers, find the length of the longest consecutive elements sequence.

For example, given [100, 4, 200, 1, 3, 2], the longest consecutive element sequence is [1, 2, 3, 4]. Return its length: 4.

Your algorithm should run in O(n) complexity.

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#100

You are in an infinite 2D grid where you can move in any of the 8 directions:

 (x,y) to
    (x+1, y),
    (x - 1, y),
    (x, y+1),
    (x, y-1),
    (x-1, y-1),
    (x+1,y+1),
    (x-1,y+1),
    (x+1,y-1)

You are given a sequence of points and the order in which you need to cover the points. Give the minimum number of steps in which you can achieve it. You start from the first point.

Example:

Input: [(0, 0), (1, 1), (1, 2)]
Output: 2

It takes 1 step to move from (0, 0) to (1, 1). It takes one more step to move from (1, 1) to (1, 2).

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#101

Given an even number (greater than 2), return two prime numbers whose sum will be equal to the given number.

A solution will always exist. See Goldbach’s conjecture.

Example:

Input: 4
Output: 2 + 2 = 4

If there are more than one solution possible, return the lexicographically smaller solution.

If [a, b] is one solution with a <= b, and [c, d] is another solution with c <= d, then

[a, b] < [c, d]

If a < c OR a==c AND b < d.

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#102

Given a list of integers and a number K, return which contiguous elements of the list sum to K.

For example, if the list is [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and K is 9, then it should return [2, 3, 4], since 2 + 3 + 4 = 9.

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#103

Given a string and a set of characters, return the shortest substring containing all the characters in the set.

For example, given the string "figehaeci" and the set of characters {a, e, i}, you should return "aeci".

If there is no substring containing all the characters in the set, return null.

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#104

Determine whether a doubly linked list is a palindrome. What if it’s singly linked?

For example, 1 -> 4 -> 3 -> 4 -> 1 returns True while 1 -> 4 returns False.

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#105

Given a function f, and N return a debounced f of N milliseconds.

That is, as long as the debounced f continues to be invoked, f itself will not be called for N milliseconds.

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#106

Given an integer list where each number represents the number of hops you can make, determine whether you can reach to the last index starting at index 0.

For example, [2, 0, 1, 0] returns True while [1, 1, 0, 1] returns False.

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#107

Print the nodes in a binary tree level-wise. For example, the following should print 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

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#108

Given two strings A and B, return whether or not A can be shifted some number of times to get B.

For example, if A is abcde and B is cdeab, return true. If A is abc and B is acb, return false.

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#109

Given an unsigned 8-bit integer, swap its even and odd bits. The 1st and 2nd bit should be swapped, the 3rd and 4th bit should be swapped, and so on.

For example, 10101010 should be 01010101. 11100010 should be 11010001.

Bonus: Can you do this in one line?

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#110

Given a binary tree, return all paths from the root to leaves.

For example, given the tree:

Return [[1, 2], [1, 3, 4], [1, 3, 5]].

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#111

Given a word W and a string S, find all starting indices in S which are anagrams of W.

For example, given that W is "ab", and S is "abxaba", return 0, 3, and 4.

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#112

Given a binary tree, find the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of two given nodes in the tree. Assume that each node in the tree also has a pointer to its parent.

According to the definition of LCA on Wikipedia: “The lowest common ancestor is defined between two nodes v and w as the lowest node in T that has both v and w as descendants (where we allow a node to be a descendant of itself).”

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#113

Given a string of words delimited by spaces, reverse the words in string. For example, given "hello world here", return "here world hello"

Follow-up: given a mutable string representation, can you perform this operation in-place?

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#114

Given a string and a set of delimiters, reverse the words in the string while maintaining the relative order of the delimiters. For example, given "hello/world:here", return "here/world:hello"

Follow-up: Does your solution work for the following cases: "hello/world:here/", "hello//world:here"

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#115

Given two non-empty binary trees s and t, check whether tree t has exactly the same structure and node values with a subtree of s. A subtree of s is a tree consists of a node in s and all of this node's descendants. The tree s could also be considered as a subtree of itself.

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#116

Generate a finite, but an arbitrarily large binary tree quickly in O(1).

That is, generate() should return a tree whose size is unbounded but finite.

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#117

Given a binary tree, return the level of the tree with minimum sum.

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#118

Given a sorted list of integers, square the elements and give the output in sorted order.

For example, given [-9, -2, 0, 2, 3], return [0, 4, 4, 9, 81].

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#119

Given a set of closed intervals, find the smallest set of numbers that covers all the intervals. If there are multiple smallest sets, return any of them.

For example, given the intervals [0, 3], [2, 6], [3, 4], [6, 9], one set of numbers that covers all these intervals is {3, 6}.

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#120

Implement the singleton pattern with a twist. First, instead of storing one instance, store two instances. And in every even call of getInstance(), return the first instance and in every odd call of getInstance(), return the second instance.

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#121

Given a string which we can delete at most k, return whether you can make a palindrome.

For example, given 'waterrfetawx' and a k of 2, you could delete f and x to get 'waterretaw'.

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#122

You are given a 2-d matrix where each cell represents number of coins in that cell. Assuming we start at matrix[0][0], and can only move right or down, find the maximum number of coins you can collect by the bottom right corner.

For example, in this matrix

0 3 1 1
2 0 0 4
1 5 3 1

The most we can collect is 0 + 2 + 1 + 5 + 3 + 1 = 12 coins.

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#123

Given a string, return whether it represents a number. Here are the different kinds of numbers:

"10", a positive integer
"-10", a negative integer
"10.1", a positive real number
"-10.1", a negative real number
"1e5", a number in scientific notation

And here are examples of non-numbers:

"a"
"x 1"
"a -2"
"-"

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#124

You have n fair coins and you flip them all at the same time. Any that come up tails you set aside. The ones that come up heads you flip again. How many rounds do you expect to play before only one coin remains?

Write a function that, given n, returns the number of rounds you'd expect to play until one coin remains.

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#125

Given the root of a binary search tree, and a target K, return two nodes in the tree whose sum equals K.

For example, given the following tree and K of 20

Return the nodes 5 and 15.

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#126

Write a function that rotates a list by k elements. For example, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] rotated by two becomes [3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2]. Try solving this without creating a copy of the list. How many swap or move operations do you need?

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#127

Let's represent an integer in a linked list format by having each node represent a digit in the number. The nodes make up the number in reversed order.

For example, the following linked list:

1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5

is the number 54321.

Given two linked lists in this format, return their sum in the same linked list format.

For example, given

9 -> 9
5 -> 2

return 124 (99 + 25) as:

4 -> 2 -> 1

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#128

The Tower of Hanoi is a puzzle game with three rods and n disks, each a different size.

All the disks start off on the first rod in a stack. They are ordered by size, with the largest disk on the bottom and the smallest one at the top.

The goal of this puzzle is to move all the disks from the first rod to the last rod while following these rules:

You can only move one disk at a time.
A move consists of taking the uppermost disk from one of the stacks and placing it on top of another stack.
You cannot place a larger disk on top of a smaller disk.

Write a function that prints out all the steps necessary to complete the Tower of Hanoi. You should assume that the rods are numbered, with the first rod being 1, the second (auxiliary) rod being 2, and the last (goal) rod being 3.

For example, with n = 3, we can do this in 7 moves:

Move 1 to 3
Move 1 to 2
Move 3 to 2
Move 1 to 3
Move 2 to 1
Move 2 to 3
Move 1 to 3

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#129

Given a real number n, find the square root of n. For example, given n = 9, return 3.

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#130

Given an array of numbers representing the stock prices of a company in chronological order and an integer k, return the maximum profit you can make from k buys and sells. You must buy the stock before you can sell it, and you must sell the stock before you can buy it again.

For example, given k = 2 and the array [5, 2, 4, 0, 1], you should return 3.

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#131

Given the head to a singly linked list, where each node also has a “random” pointer that points to anywhere in the linked list, deep clone the list.

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#132

Design and implement a HitCounter class that keeps track of requests (or hits). It should support the following operations:

record(timestamp): records a hit that happened at timestamp
total(): returns the total number of hits recorded
range(lower, upper): returns the number of hits that occurred between timestamps lower and upper (inclusive)

Follow-up: What if our system has limited memory?

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#133

Given a node in a binary search tree, return the next bigger element, also known as the inorder successor.

For example, the inorder successor of 22 is 30.

You can assume each node has a parent pointer.

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#134

You have a large array with most of the elements as zero.

Use a more space-efficient data structure, SparseArray, that implements the same interface:

init(arr, size): initialize with the original large array and size.
set(i, val): updates index at i with val.
get(i): gets the value at index i.

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#135

Given a binary tree, find a minimum path sum from root to a leaf.

For example, the minimum path in this tree is [10, 5, 1, -1], which has sum 15.

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#136

Given an N by M matrix consisting only of 1's and 0's, find the largest rectangle containing only 1's and return its area.

For example, given the following matrix:

[[1, 0, 0, 0],
 [1, 0, 1, 1],
 [1, 0, 1, 1],
 [0, 1, 0, 0]]

Return 4.

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#137

Implement a bit array.

A bit array is a space efficient array that holds a value of 1 or 0 at each index.

init(size): initialize the array with size
set(i, val): updates index at i with val where val is either 1 or 0.
get(i): gets the value at index i.

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#138

Find the minimum number of coins required to make n cents.

You can use standard American denominations, that is, 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, and 25¢.

For example, given n = 16, return 3 since we can make it with a 10¢, a 5¢, and a 1¢.

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#139

Given an iterator with methods next() and hasNext(), create a wrapper iterator, PeekableInterface, which also implements peek(). peek shows the next element that would be returned on next().

Here is the interface:

class PeekableInterface(object):
    def __init__(self, iterator):
        pass

    def peek(self):
        pass

    def next(self):
        pass

    def hasNext(self):
        pass

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#140

Given an array of integers in which two elements appear exactly once and all other elements appear exactly twice, find the two elements that appear only once.

For example, given the array [2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 2, 6, 10], return 4 and 8. The order does not matter.

Follow-up: Can you do this in linear time and constant space?

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#141

Implement 3 stacks using a single list:

class Stack:
    def __init__(self):
        self.list = []

    def pop(self, stack_number):
        pass

    def push(self, item, stack_number):
        pass

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#142

You're given a string consisting solely of (, ), and *. * can represent either a (, ), or an empty string. Determine whether the parentheses are balanced.

For example, (()* and (*) are balanced. )*( is not balanced.

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#143

Given a pivot x, and a list lst, partition the list into three parts.

The first part contains all elements in lst that are less than x
The second part contains all elements in lst that are equal to x
The third part contains all elements in lst that are larger than x Ordering within a part can be arbitrary.

For example, given x = 10 and lst = [9, 12, 3, 5, 14, 10, 10], one partition may be [9, 3, 5, 10, 10, 12, 14]

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#144

Given an array of numbers and an index i, return the index of the nearest larger number of the number at index i, where distance is measured in array indices.

For example, given [4, 1, 3, 5, 6] and index 0, you should return 3.

If two distances to larger numbers are the equal, then return any one of them. If the array at i doesn't have a nearest larger integer, then return null.

Follow-up: If you can preprocess the array, can you do this in constant time?

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#145

Given the head of a singly linked list, swap every two nodes and return its head.

For example, given 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4, return 2 -> 1 -> 4 -> 3.

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#146

Given a binary tree where all nodes are either 0 or 1, prune the tree so that subtrees containing all 0s are removed.

For example, given the following tree:

should be pruned to:

We do not remove the tree at the root or its left child because it still has a 1 as a descendant.

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#147

Given a list, sort it using this method: reverse(lst, i, j), which reverses lst from i to j.

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#148

Gray code is a binary code where each successive value differ in only one bit, as well as when wrapping around. Gray code is common in hardware so that we don't see temporary spurious values during transitions.

Given a number of bits n, generate a possible gray code for it.

For example, for n = 2, one gray code would be [00, 01, 11, 10].

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#149

Given a list of numbers L, implement a method sum(i, j) which returns the sum from the sublist L[i:j] (including i, excluding j).

For example, given L = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], sum(1, 3) should return sum([2, 3]), which is 5.

You can assume that you can do some pre-processing. sum() should be optimized over the pre-processing step.

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#150

Given a list of points, a central point, and an integer k, find the nearest k points from the central point.

For example, given the list of points [(0, 0), (5, 4), (3, 1)], the central point (1, 2), and k = 2, return [(0, 0), (3, 1)].

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#151

Given a 2-D matrix representing an image, a location of a pixel in the screen and a color C, replace the color of the given pixel and all adjacent same colored pixels with C.

For example, given the following matrix, and location pixel of (2, 2), and 'G' for green:

B B W
W W W
W W W
B B B

Becomes

B B G
G G G
G G G
B B B

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#152

You are given n numbers as well as n probabilities that sum up to 1. Write a function to generate one of the numbers with its corresponding probability.

For example, given the numbers [1, 2, 3, 4] and probabilities [0.1, 0.5, 0.2, 0.2], your function should return 1 10% of the time, 2 50% of the time, and 3 and 4 20% of the time.

You can generate random numbers between 0 and 1 uniformly.

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#153

Find an efficient algorithm to find the smallest distance (measured in number of words) between any two given words in a string.

For example, given words "hello", and "world" and a text content of "dog cat hello cat dog dog hello cat world", return 1 because there's only one word "cat" in between the two words.

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#154

Implement a stack API using only a heap. A stack implements the following methods:

push(item), which adds an element to the stack
pop(), which removes and returns the most recently added element (or throws an error if there is nothing on the stack)

Recall that a heap has the following operations:

push(item), which adds a new key to the heap
pop(), which removes and returns the max value of the heap

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#155

Given a list of elements, find the majority element, which appears more than half the time (> floor(len(lst) / 2.0)).

You can assume that such element exists.

For example, given [1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4, 0], return 1.

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#156

Given a positive integer n, find the smallest number of squared integers which sum to n.

For example, given n = 13, return 2 since 13 = 32 + 22 = 9 + 4.

Given n = 27, return 3 since 27 = 32 + 32 + 32 = 9 + 9 + 9.

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#157

Given a string, determine whether any permutation of it is a palindrome.

For example, carrace should return true, since it can be rearranged to form racecar, which is a palindrome. daily should return false, since there's no rearrangement that can form a palindrome.

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#158

You are given an N by M matrix of 0s and 1s. Starting from the top left corner, how many ways are there to reach the bottom right corner?

You can only move right and down. 0 represents an empty space while 1 represents a wall you cannot walk through.

For example, given the following matrix:

[[0, 0, 1],
 [0, 0, 1],
 [1, 0, 0]]

Return two, as there are only two ways to get to the bottom right:

Right, down, down, right Down, right, down, right The top left corner and bottom right corner will always be 0.

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#159

Given a string, return the first recurring character in it, or null if there is no recurring chracter.

For example, given the string "acbbac", return "b". Given the string "abcdef", return null.

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#160

Given a tree where each edge has a weight, compute the length of the longest path in the tree.

For example, given the following tree:

   a
  /|\
 b c d
    / \
   e   f
  / \
 g   h

and the weights: a-b: 3, a-c: 5, a-d: 8, d-e: 2, d-f: 4, e-g: 1, e-h: 1, the longest path would be c -> a -> d -> f, with a length of 17.

The path does not have to pass through the root, and each node can have any amount of children.

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#161

Given a 32-bit integer, return the number with its bits reversed.

For example, given the binary number 1111 0000 1111 0000 1111 0000 1111 0000, return 0000 1111 0000 1111 0000 1111 0000 1111.

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#162

Given a list of words, return the shortest unique prefix of each word. For example, given the list:

dog
cat
apple
apricot
fish

Return the list:

d
c
app
apr
f

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#163

Given an arithmetic expression in Reverse Polish Notation, write a program to evaluate it.

The expression is given as a list of numbers and operands. For example: [5, 3, '+'] should return 5 + 3 = 8.

For example, [15, 7, 1, 1, '+', '-', '/', 3, '*', 2, 1, 1, '+', '+', '-'] should return 5, since it is equivalent to ((15 / (7 - (1 + 1))) * 3) - (2 + (1 + 1)) = 5.

You can assume the given expression is always valid.

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#164

You are given an array of length n + 1 whose elements belong to the set {1, 2, ..., n}. By the pigeonhole principle, there must be a duplicate. Find it in linear time and space.

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#165

Given an array of integers, return a new array where each element in the new array is the number of smaller elements to the right of that element in the original input array.

For example, given the array [3, 4, 9, 6, 1], return [1, 1, 2, 1, 0], since:

There is 1 smaller element to the right of 3
There is 1 smaller element to the right of 4
There are 2 smaller elements to the right of 9
There is 1 smaller element to the right of 6
There are no smaller elements to the right of 1

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#166

Implement a 2D iterator class. It will be initialized with an array of arrays, and should implement the following methods:

next(): returns the next element in the array of arrays. If there are no more elements, raise an exception.
has_next(): returns whether or not the iterator still has elements left.

For example, given the input [[1, 2], [3], [], [4, 5, 6]], calling next() repeatedly should output 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Do not use flatten or otherwise clone the arrays. Some of the arrays can be empty.

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#167

Given a list of words, find all pairs of unique indices such that the concatenation of the two words is a palindrome.

For example, given the list ["code", "edoc", "da", "d"], return [(0, 1), (1, 0), (2, 3)].

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#168

Given an N by N matrix, rotate it by 90 degrees clockwise.

For example, given the following matrix:

[[1, 2, 3],
 [4, 5, 6],
 [7, 8, 9]]

you should return:

[[7, 4, 1],
 [8, 5, 2],
 [9, 6, 3]]

Follow-up: What if you couldn't use any extra space?

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#169

Given a linked list, sort it in O(n log n) time and constant space.

For example, the linked list 4 -> 1 -> -3 -> 99 should become -3 -> 1 -> 4 -> 99.

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#170

Given a start word, an end word, and a dictionary of valid words, find the shortest transformation sequence from start to end such that only one letter is changed at each step of the sequence, and each transformed word exists in the dictionary. If there is no possible transformation, return null. Each word in the dictionary have the same length as start and end and is lowercase.

For example, given start = "dog", end = "cat", and dictionary = {"dot", "dop", "dat", "cat"}, return ["dog", "dot", "dat", "cat"].

Given start = "dog", end = "cat", and dictionary = {"dot", "tod", "dat", "dar"}, return null as there is no possible transformation from dog to cat.

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#171

You are given a list of data entries that represent entries and exits of groups of people into a building. An entry looks like this:

{"timestamp": 1526579928, count: 3, "type": "enter"}

This means 3 people entered the building. An exit looks like this:

{"timestamp": 1526580382, count: 2, "type": "exit"}

This means that 2 people exited the building. timestamp is in Unix time.

Find the busiest period in the building, that is, the time with the most people in the building. Return it as a pair of (start, end) timestamps. You can assume the building always starts off and ends up empty, i.e. with 0 people inside.

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#172

Given a string s and a list of words words, where each word is the same length, find all starting indices of substrings in s that is a concatenation of every word in words exactly once.

For example, given s = "dogcatcatcodecatdog" and words = ["cat", "dog"], return [0, 13], since "dogcat" starts at index 0 and "catdog" starts at index 13.

Given s = "barfoobazbitbyte" and words = ["dog", "cat"], return [] since there are no substrings composed of "dog" and "cat" in s.

The order of the indices does not matter.

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#173

Write a function to flatten a nested dictionary. Namespace the keys with a period.

For example, given the following dictionary:

{
    "key": 3,
    "foo": {
        "a": 5,
        "bar": {
            "baz": 8
        }
    }
}

it should become:

{
    "key": 3,
    "foo.a": 5,
    "foo.bar.baz": 8
}

You can assume keys do not contain dots in them, i.e. no clobbering will occur.

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#174

Describe and give an example of each of the following types of polymorphism:

Ad-hoc polymorphism
Parametric polymorphism
Subtype polymorphism

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#175

You are given a starting state start, a list of transition probabilities for a Markov chain, and a number of steps num_steps. Run the Markov chain starting from start for num_steps and compute the number of times we visited each state.

For example, given the starting state a, number of steps 5000, and the following transition probabilities:

[
  ('a', 'a', 0.9),
  ('a', 'b', 0.075),
  ('a', 'c', 0.025),
  ('b', 'a', 0.15),
  ('b', 'b', 0.8),
  ('b', 'c', 0.05),
  ('c', 'a', 0.25),
  ('c', 'b', 0.25),
  ('c', 'c', 0.5)
]

One instance of running this Markov chain might produce { 'a': 3012, 'b': 1656, 'c': 332 }.

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#176

Determine whether there exists a one-to-one character mapping from one string s1 to another s2.

For example, given s1 = abc and s2 = bcd, return true since we can map a to b, b to c, and c to d.

Given s1 = foo and s2 = bar, return false since the o cannot map to two characters.

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#177

Given a linked list and a positive integer k, rotate the list to the right by k places.

For example, given the linked list 7 -> 7 -> 3 -> 5 and k = 2, it should become 3 -> 5 -> 7 -> 7.

Given the linked list 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 and k = 2, it should become 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 1 -> 2.

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#178

Alice wants to join her school's Probability Student Club. Membership dues are computed via one of two simple probabilistic games.

The first game: roll a die repeatedly. Stop rolling once you get a five followed by a six. Your number of rolls is the amount you pay, in dollars.

The second game: same, except that the stopping condition is a five followed by a five.

Which of the two games should Alice elect to play? Does it even matter? Write a program to simulate the two games and calculate their expected value.

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#179

Given the sequence of keys visited by a postorder traversal of a binary search tree, reconstruct the tree.

For example, given the sequence 2, 4, 3, 8, 7, 5, you should construct the following tree:

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#180

Given a stack of N elements, interleave the first half of the stack with the second half reversed using only one other queue. This should be done in-place.

Recall that you can only push or pop from a stack, and enqueue or dequeue from a queue.

For example, if the stack is [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], it should become [1, 5, 2, 4, 3]. If the stack is [1, 2, 3, 4], it should become [1, 4, 2, 3].

Hint: Try working backwards from the end state.

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#181

Given a string, split it into as few strings as possible such that each string is a palindrome.

For example, given the input string racecarannakayak, return ["racecar", "anna", "kayak"].

Given the input string abc, return ["a", "b", "c"].

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#182

A graph is minimally-connected if it is connected and there is no edge that can be removed while still leaving the graph connected. For example, any binary tree is minimally-connected.

Given an undirected graph, check if the graph is minimally-connected. You can choose to represent the graph as either an adjacency matrix or adjacency list.

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#183

Describe what happens when you type a URL into your browser and press Enter.

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#184

Given n numbers, find the greatest common denominator between them.

For example, given the numbers [42, 56, 14], return 14.

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#185

Given two rectangles on a 2D graph, return the area of their intersection. If the rectangles don't intersect, return 0.

For example, given the following rectangles:

{
    "top_left": (1, 4),
    "dimensions": (3, 3) # width, height
}

and

{
    "top_left": (0, 5),
    "dimensions": (4, 3) # width, height
}

return 6.

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#186

Given an array of positive integers, divide the array into two subsets such that the difference between the sum of the subsets is as small as possible.

For example, given [5, 10, 15, 20, 25], return the sets {10, 25} and {5, 15, 20}, which has a difference of 5, which is the smallest possible difference.

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#187

You are given given a list of rectangles represented by min and max x- and y-coordinates. Compute whether or not a pair of rectangles overlap each other. If one rectangle completely covers another, it is considered overlapping.

For example, given the following rectangles:

{
    "top_left": (1, 4),
    "dimensions": (3, 3) # width, height
},
{
    "top_left": (-1, 3),
    "dimensions": (2, 1)
},
{
    "top_left": (0, 5),
    "dimensions": (4, 3)
}

return true as the first and third rectangle overlap each other.

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#188

What will this code print out?

def make_functions():
    flist = []

    for i in [1, 2, 3]:
        def print_i():
            print(i)
        flist.append(print_i)

    return flist

functions = make_functions()
for f in functions:
    f()

How can we make it print out what we apparently want?

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#189

Given an array of elements, return the length of the longest subarray where all its elements are distinct.

For example, given the array [5, 1, 3, 5, 2, 3, 4, 1], return 5 as the longest subarray of distinct elements is [5, 2, 3, 4, 1].

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#190

Given a circular array, compute its maximum subarray sum in O(n) time. A subarray can be empty, and in this case the sum is 0.

For example, given [8, -1, 3, 4], return 15 as we choose the numbers 3, 4, and 8 where the 8 is obtained from wrapping around.

Given [-4, 5, 1, 0], return 6 as we choose the numbers 5 and 1.

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#191

Given a collection of intervals, find the minimum number of intervals you need to remove to make the rest of the intervals non-overlapping.

Intervals can "touch", such as [0, 1] and [1, 2], but they won't be considered overlapping.

For example, given the intervals (7, 9), (2, 4), (5, 8), return 1 as the last interval can be removed and the first two won't overlap.

The intervals are not necessarily sorted in any order.

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#192

You are given an array of nonnegative integers. Let's say you start at the beginning of the array and are trying to advance to the end. You can advance at most, the number of steps that you're currently on. Determine whether you can get to the end of the array.

For example, given the array [1, 3, 1, 2, 0, 1], we can go from indices 0 -> 1 -> 3 -> 5, so return true.

Given the array [1, 2, 1, 0, 0], we can't reach the end, so return false.

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#193

You must buy before you can sell the stock, but you can make as many transactions as you like.

For example, given [1, 3, 2, 8, 4, 10] and fee = 2, you should return 9, since you could buy the stock at 1 dollar, and sell at 8 dollars, and then buy it at 4 dollars and sell it at 10 dollars. Since we did two transactions, there is a 4 dollar fee, so we have 7 + 6 = 13 profit minus 4 dollars of fees.

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#194

Suppose you are given two lists of n points, one list p1, p2, ..., pn on the line y = 0 and the other list q1, q2, ..., qn on the line y = 1. Imagine a set of n line segments connecting each point pi to qi. Write an algorithm to determine how many pairs of the line segments intersect.

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#195

Let A be an N by M matrix in which every row and every column is sorted.

Given i1, j1, i2, and j2, compute the number of elements of M smaller than M[i1, j1] and larger than M[i2, j2].

For example, given the following matrix:

[[1, 3, 7, 10, 15, 20],
 [2, 6, 9, 14, 22, 25],
 [3, 8, 10, 15, 25, 30],
 [10, 11, 12, 23, 30, 35],
 [20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45]]

And i1 = 1, j1 = 1, i2 = 3, j2 = 3, return 15 as there are 15 numbers in the matrix smaller than 6 or greater than 23.

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#196

Given the root of a binary tree, find the most frequent subtree sum. The subtree sum of a node is the sum of all values under a node, including the node itself.

For example, given the following tree:

  5
 / \
2  -5

Return 2 as it occurs twice: once as the left leaf, and once as the sum of 2 + 5 - 5.

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#197

Given an array and a number k that's smaller than the length of the array, rotate the array to the right k elements in-place.

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#198

Given a set of distinct positive integers, find the largest subset such that every pair of elements in the subset (i, j) satisfies either i % j = 0 or j % i = 0.

For example, given the set [3, 5, 10, 20, 21], you should return [5, 10, 20]. Given [1, 3, 6, 24], return [1, 3, 6, 24].

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#199

Given a string of parentheses, find the balanced string that can be produced from it using the minimum number of insertions and deletions. If there are multiple solutions, return any of them.

For example, given "(()", you could return "(())". Given "))()(", you could return "()()()()".

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#200

Let X be a set of n intervals on the real line. We say that a set of points P "stabs" X if every interval in X contains at least one point in P. Compute the smallest set of points that stabs X.

For example, given the intervals [(1, 4), (4, 5), (7, 9), (9, 12)], you should return [4, 9].

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#201

You are given an array of arrays of integers, where each array corresponds to a row in a triangle of numbers. For example, [[1], [2, 3], [1, 5, 1]] represents the triangle:

  1
 2 3
1 5 1

We define a path in the triangle to start at the top and go down one row at a time to an adjacent value, eventually ending with an entry on the bottom row. For example, 1 -> 3 -> 5. The weight of the path is the sum of the entries.

Write a program that returns the weight of the maximum weight path.

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#202

Write a program that checks whether an integer is a palindrome. For example, 121 is a palindrome, as well as 888. 678 is not a palindrome. Do not convert the integer into a string.

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#203

Suppose an array sorted in ascending order is rotated at some pivot unknown to you beforehand. Find the minimum element in O(log N) time. You may assume the array does not contain duplicates.

For example, given [5, 7, 10, 3, 4], return 3.

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#204

Given a complete binary tree, count the number of nodes in faster than O(n) time. Recall that a complete binary tree has every level filled except the last, and the nodes in the last level are filled starting from the left.

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#205

Given an integer, find the next permutation of it in absolute order. For example, given 48975, the next permutation would be 49578.

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#206

A permutation can be specified by an array P, where P[i] represents the location of the element at i in the permutation. For example, [2, 1, 0] represents the permutation where elements at the index 0 and 2 are swapped.

Given an array and a permutation, apply the permutation to the array. For example, given the array ["a", "b", "c"] and the permutation [2, 1, 0], return ["c", "b", "a"].

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#207

Given an undirected graph G, check whether it is bipartite. Recall that a graph is bipartite if its vertices can be divided into two independent sets, U and V, such that no edge connects vertices of the same set.

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#208

Given a linked list of numbers and a pivot k, partition the linked list so that all nodes less than k come before nodes greater than or equal to k.

For example, given the linked list 5 -> 1 -> 8 -> 0 -> 3 and k = 3, the solution could be 1 -> 0 -> 5 -> 8 -> 3.

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#209

Write a program that computes the length of the longest common subsequence of three given strings. For example, given "epidemiologist", "refrigeration", and "supercalifragilisticexpialodocious", it should return 5, since the longest common subsequence is "eieio".

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#210

A Collatz sequence in mathematics can be defined as follows. Starting with any positive integer:

If n is even, the next number in the sequence is n / 2
If n is odd, the next number in the sequence is 3n + 1

It is conjectured that every such sequence eventually reaches the number 1. Test this conjecture.

Bonus: What input n <= 1000000 gives the longest sequence?

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#211

Given a string and a pattern, find the starting indices of all occurrences of the pattern in the string. For example, given the string "abracadabra" and the pattern "abr", you should return [0, 7].

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#212

Spreadsheets often use this alphabetical encoding for its columns: "A", "B", "C", ..., "AA", "AB", ..., "ZZ", "AAA", "AAB", ....

Given a column number, return its alphabetical column id. For example, given 1, return "A". Given 27, return "AA".

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#213

Given a string of digits, generate all possible valid IP address combinations.

IP addresses must follow the format A.B.C.D, where A, B, C, and D are numbers between 0 and 255. Zero-prefixed numbers, such as 01 and 065, are not allowed, except for 0 itself.

For example, given "2542540123", you should return ['254.25.40.123', '254.254.0.123'].

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#214

Given an integer n, return the length of the longest consecutive run of 1s in its binary representation.

For example, given 156, you should return 3.

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#215

The horizontal distance of a binary tree node describes how far left or right the node will be when the tree is printed out.

More rigorously, we can define it as follows:

The horizontal distance of the root is 0.
The horizontal distance of a left child is hd(parent) - 1.
The horizontal distance of a right child is hd(parent) + 1.

For example, for the following tree, hd(1) = -2, and hd(6) = 0.

             5
          /     \
        3         7
      /  \      /   \
    1     4    6     9
   /                /
  0                8

The bottom view of a tree, then, consists of the lowest node at each horizontal distance. If there are two nodes at the same depth and horizontal distance, either is acceptable.

For this tree, for example, the bottom view could be [0, 1, 3, 6, 8, 9].

Given the root to a binary tree, return its bottom view.

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#216

Given a number in Roman numeral format, convert it to decimal.

The values of Roman numerals are as follows:

{
    'M': 1000,
    'D': 500,
    'C': 100,
    'L': 50,
    'X': 10,
    'V': 5,
    'I': 1
}

In addition, note that the Roman numeral system uses subtractive notation for numbers such as IV and XL.

For the input XIV, for instance, you should return 14.

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#217

We say a number is sparse if there are no adjacent ones in its binary representation. For example, 21 (10101) is sparse, but 22 (10110) is not. For a given input N, find the smallest sparse number greater than or equal to N.

Do this in faster than O(N log N) time.

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#218

Write an algorithm that computes the reversal of a directed graph. For example, if a graph consists of A -> B -> C, it should become A <- B <- C.

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#219

Connect 4 is a game where opponents take turns dropping red or black discs into a 7 x 6 vertically suspended grid. The game ends either when one player creates a line of four consecutive discs of their color (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally), or when there are no more spots left in the grid.

Design and implement Connect 4.

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#220

In front of you is a row of N coins, with values v1, v1, ..., vn.

You are asked to play the following game. You and an opponent take turns choosing either the first or last coin from the row, removing it from the row, and receiving the value of the coin.

Write a program that returns the maximum amount of money you can win with certainty, if you move first, assuming your opponent plays optimally.

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#221

Let's define a "sevenish" number to be one which is either a power of 7, or the sum of unique powers of 7. The first few sevenish numbers are 1, 7, 8, 49, and so on. Create an algorithm to find the nth sevenish number.

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#222

Given an absolute pathname that may have . or .. as part of it, return the shortest standardized path.

For example, given "/usr/bin/../bin/./scripts/../", return "/usr/bin/".

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#223

Typically, an implementation of in-order traversal of a binary tree has O(h) space complexity, where h is the height of the tree. Write a program to compute the in-order traversal of a binary tree using O(1) space.

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#224

Given a sorted array, find the smallest positive integer that is not the sum of a subset of the array.

For example, for the input [1, 2, 3, 10], you should return 7.

Do this in O(N) time.

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#225

There are N prisoners standing in a circle, waiting to be executed. The executions are carried out starting with the kth person, and removing every successive kth person going clockwise until there is no one left.

Given N and k, write an algorithm to determine where a prisoner should stand in order to be the last survivor.

For example, if N = 5 and k = 2, the order of executions would be [2, 4, 1, 5, 3], so you should return 3.

Bonus: Find an O(log N) solution if k = 2.

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#226

You come across a dictionary of sorted words in a language you've never seen before. Write a program that returns the correct order of letters in this language.

For example, given ['xww', 'wxyz', 'wxyw', 'ywx', 'ywz'], you should return ['x', 'z', 'w', 'y'].

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#227

Boggle is a game played on a 4 x 4 grid of letters. The goal is to find as many words as possible that can be formed by a sequence of adjacent letters in the grid, using each cell at most once. Given a game board and a dictionary of valid words, implement a Boggle solver.

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#228

Given a list of numbers, create an algorithm that arranges them in order to form the largest possible integer. For example, given [10, 7, 76, 415], you should return 77641510.

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#229

Snakes and Ladders is a game played on a 10 x 10 board, the goal of which is get from square 1 to square 100. On each turn players will roll a six-sided die and move forward a number of spaces equal to the result. If they land on a square that represents a snake or ladder, they will be transported ahead or behind, respectively, to a new square.

Find the smallest number of turns it takes to play snakes and ladders.

For convenience, here are the squares representing snakes and ladders, and their outcomes:

snakes = {16: 6, 48: 26, 49: 11, 56: 53, 62: 19, 64: 60, 87: 24, 93: 73, 95: 75, 98: 78}
ladders = {1: 38, 4: 14, 9: 31, 21: 42, 28: 84, 36: 44, 51: 67, 71: 91, 80: 100}

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#230

You are given N identical eggs and access to a building with k floors. Your task is to find the lowest floor that will cause an egg to break, if dropped from that floor. Once an egg breaks, it cannot be dropped again. If an egg breaks when dropped from the xth floor, you can assume it will also break when dropped from any floor greater than x.

Write an algorithm that finds the minimum number of trial drops it will take, in the worst case, to identify this floor.

For example, if N = 1 and k = 5, we will need to try dropping the egg at every floor, beginning with the first, until we reach the fifth floor, so our solution will be 5.

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#231

Given a string with repeated characters, rearrange the string so that no two adjacent characters are the same. If this is not possible, return None.

For example, given "aaabbc", you could return "ababac". Given "aaab", return None.

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#232

Implement a PrefixMapSum class with the following methods:

insert(key: str, value: int): Set a given key's value in the map. If the key already exists, overwrite the value.
sum(prefix: str): Return the sum of all values of keys that begin with a given prefix.

For example, you should be able to run the following code:

mapsum.insert("columnar", 3)
assert mapsum.sum("col") == 3

mapsum.insert("column", 2)
assert mapsum.sum("col") == 5

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#233

Implement the function fib(n), which returns the nth number in the Fibonacci sequence, using only O(1) space.

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#234

Recall that the minimum spanning tree is the subset of edges of a tree that connect all its vertices with the smallest possible total edge weight. Given an undirected graph with weighted edges, compute the maximum weight spanning tree.

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#235

Given an array of numbers of length N, find both the minimum and maximum using less than 2 * (N - 2) comparisons.

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#236

You are given a list of N points (x1, y1), (x2, y2), ..., (xN, yN) representing a polygon. You can assume these points are given in order; that is, you can construct the polygon by connecting point 1 to point 2, point 2 to point 3, and so on, finally looping around to connect point N to point 1.

Determine if a new point p lies inside this polygon. (If p is on the boundary of the polygon, you should return False).

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#237

A tree is symmetric if its data and shape remain unchanged when it is reflected about the root node. The following tree is an example:

        4
      / | \
    3   5   3
  /           \
9              9

Given a k-ary tree, determine whether it is symmetric.

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#238

Blackjack is a two player card game whose rules are as follows:

The player and then the dealer are each given two cards.
The player can then "hit", or ask for arbitrarily many additional cards, so long as their total does not exceed 21.
The dealer must then hit if their total is 16 or lower, otherwise pass.
Finally, the two compare totals, and the one with the greatest sum not exceeding 21 is the winner.

For this problem, cards values are counted as follows: each card between 2 and 10 counts as their face value, face cards count as 10, and aces count as 1.

Given perfect knowledge of the sequence of cards in the deck, implement a blackjack solver that maximizes the player's score (that is, wins minus losses).

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#239

One way to unlock an Android phone is through a pattern of swipes across a 1-9 keypad.

For a pattern to be valid, it must satisfy the following:

All of its keys must be distinct.
It must not connect two keys by jumping over a third key, unless that key has already been used.

For example, 4 - 2 - 1 - 7 is a valid pattern, whereas 2 - 1 - 7 is not.

Find the total number of valid unlock patterns of length N, where 1 <= N <= 9.

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#240

There are N couples sitting in a row of length 2 * N. They are currently ordered randomly, but would like to rearrange themselves so that each couple's partners can sit side by side.

What is the minimum number of swaps necessary for this to happen?

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#241

In academia, the h-index is a metric used to calculate the impact of a researcher's papers. It is calculated as follows:

A researcher has index h if at least h of her N papers have h citations each. If there are multiple h satisfying this formula, the maximum is chosen.

For example, suppose N = 5, and the respective citations of each paper are [4, 3, 0, 1, 5]. Then the h-index would be 3, since the researcher has 3 papers with at least 3 citations.

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#242

Given a list of paper citations of a researcher, calculate their h-index.

You are given an array of length 24, where each element represents the number of new subscribers during the corresponding hour. Implement a data structure that efficiently supports the following:

update(hour: int, value: int): Increment the element at index hour by value. query(start: int, end: int): Retrieve the number of subscribers that have signed up between start and end (inclusive). You can assume that all values get cleared at the end of the day, and that you will not be asked for start and end values that wrap around midnight.

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#243

Given an array of numbers N and an integer k, your task is to split N into k partitions such that the maximum sum of any partition is minimized. Return this sum.

For example, given N = [5, 1, 2, 7, 3, 4] and k = 3, you should return 8, since the optimal partition is [5, 1, 2], [7], [3, 4].

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#244

The Sieve of Eratosthenes is an algorithm used to generate all prime numbers smaller than N. The method is to take increasingly larger prime numbers, and mark their multiples as composite.

For example, to find all primes less than 100, we would first mark [4, 6, 8, ...] (multiples of two), then [6, 9, 12, ...] (multiples of three), and so on. Once we have done this for all primes less than N, the unmarked numbers that remain will be prime.

Implement this algorithm.

Bonus: Create a generator that produces primes indefinitely (that is, without taking N as an input).

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#245

You are given an array of integers, where each element represents the maximum number of steps that can be jumped going forward from that element. Write a function to return the minimum number of jumps you must take in order to get from the start to the end of the array.

For example, given [6, 2, 4, 0, 5, 1, 1, 4, 2, 9], you should return 2, as the optimal solution involves jumping from 6 to 5, and then from 5 to 9.

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#246

Given a list of words, determine whether the words can be chained to form a circle. A word X can be placed in front of another word Y in a circle if the last character of X is same as the first character of Y.

For example, the words ['chair', 'height', 'racket', touch', 'tunic'] can form the following circle: chair --> racket --> touch --> height --> tunic --> chair

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#247

Given a binary tree, determine whether or not it is height-balanced. A height-balanced binary tree can be defined as one in which the heights of the two subtrees of any node never differ by more than one.

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#248

Find the maximum of two numbers without using any if-else statements, branching, or direct comparisons.

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#249

Given an array of integers, find the maximum XOR of any two elements.

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#250

A cryptarithmetic puzzle is a mathematical game where the digits of some numbers are represented by letters. Each letter represents a unique digit.

For example, a puzzle of the form:

  SEND
+ MORE
--------
 MONEY

may have the solution:

{'S': 9, 'E': 5, 'N': 6, 'D': 7, 'M': 1, 'O', 0, 'R': 8, 'Y': 2}

Given a three-word puzzle like the one above, create an algorithm that finds a solution.

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#251

Given an array of a million integers between zero and a billion, out of order, how can you efficiently sort it? Assume that you cannot store an array of a billion elements in memory.

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#252

The ancient Egyptians used to express fractions as a sum of several terms where each numerator is one. For example, 4 / 13 can be represented as 1 / 4 + 1 / 18 + 1 / 468.

Create an algorithm to turn an ordinary fraction a / b, where a < b, into an Egyptian fraction.

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#253

Given a string and a number of lines k, print the string in zigzag form. In zigzag, characters are printed out diagonally from top left to bottom right until reaching the kth line, then back up to top right, and so on.

For example, given the sentence "thisisazigzag" and k = 4, you should print:

t     a     g
 h   s z   a
  i i   i z
   s     g

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#254

Recall that a full binary tree is one in which each node is either a leaf node, or has two children. Given a binary tree, convert it to a full one by removing nodes with only one child.

For example, given the following tree:

         0
      /     \
    1         2
  /            \
3                 4
  \             /   \
    5          6     7

You should convert it to:

     0
  /     \
5         4
        /   \
       6     7

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#255

The transitive closure of a graph is a measure of which vertices are reachable from other vertices. It can be represented as a matrix M, where M[i][j] == 1 if there is a path between vertices i and j, and otherwise 0.

For example, suppose we are given the following graph in adjacency list form:

graph = [
    [0, 1, 3],
    [1, 2],
    [2],
    [3]
]

The transitive closure of this graph would be:

[1, 1, 1, 1]
[0, 1, 1, 0]
[0, 0, 1, 0]
[0, 0, 0, 1]

Given a graph, find its transitive closure.

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#256

Given a linked list, rearrange the node values such that they appear in alternating low -> high -> low -> high ... form. For example, given 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5, you should return 1 -> 3 -> 2 -> 5 -> 4.

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#257

Given an array of integers out of order, determine the bounds of the smallest window that must be sorted in order for the entire array to be sorted. For example, given [3, 7, 5, 6, 9], you should return (1, 3).

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