Скачать или смотреть How to Pass a Leetcode Interview: Learn from Interns’ Graph Problems | SWE Interview #18

Three interns. Three interviews. Three problems. All solved with plenty of time to spare.

The first problem asked to count the number of parents each individual has. The first candidate used a hash map to count the number of parents of all individuals. The second candidate also used a hash map but also a visited set to account for individuals with zero parents. The third candidate similarly used a hash map and set of all individuals.

The second problem asked to determine whether two individuals from a family tree shared a common ancestor or not. The first candidate solved the problem using breadth first search and a deque. The second candidate used BFS with a regular list as a queue. The third candidate solved the problem using depth first search.

The third problem asked to find the earliest known (farthest distance away in the tree) ancestor of a particular individual. The first candidate solved the problem using BFS by returning the last individual of the search. The second candidate used BFS in the same way, but a different implementation. The third candidate solved the problem using DFS by introducing a new variable to keep track of the max depth seen so far, incrementing the current depth by one after every iteration of the recursive function.

All three candidates solved all three problems with time to spare. Some did so with more errors and issues to debug than others, but they all passed the interview and received internship offers after subsequent interviews.

Why is it that interns and new grads do so well in Leetcode interviews? Why is it that all three candidates easily solved all three problems with plenty of time to spare? What did they do differently from most software engineers who struggle with these types of interviews?

Leetcode interviews fundamentally test core Computer Science concepts taught in a traditional CS undergraduate program. These data structures and algorithms are fresh in the minds of hopeful interns and new grads, so is easier to recall. The ease of recall directly translates to a better performance because these candidates require less practice to recall what they are expected to demonstrate in the interviews themselves. Software engineers already working in the industry for several years are far removed from these concepts as they are seldom relevant to their day-to-day work.

Furthermore, college students, particularly Juniors and Seniors, have a lot more free time to dedicate to interview prep than professional software engineers juggling demanding jobs and other obligations, such as caring for a family. Studies show, not just for Leetcode interviews but standardized testing as well, that the amount of study and/or practice done is proportional to interview performance: the more you practice Leetcode questions, the better you perform in interviews.

Learn from these interns. But also recognize that these are the types of candidates you are competing with. You either have to differentiate yourself in an interview, or study and practice enough to be graded favorably on the curve.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction 1
0:04 Introduction 2
0:15 Introduction 3
0:28 Problem Statement 1
1:13 Coding 1A
3:06 Coding 1B
5:45 Coding 1C
8:04 Problem Statement 2
8:30 Coding 2A
10:38 Coding 2B
16:32 Coding 2C
20:25 Problem Statement 3
20:58 Coding 3A
22:33 Coding 3B
26:59 Coding 3C
29:25 Outro

If you like the video, please like and subscribe to the channel! If you want to see an interview exploring a particular topic or question, please comment below!


#leetcode #internship #dsa #bfs #dfs #queue