Technical Interview Process

1. Interviewer asks question
   • clarify question, yes even if you think it is clear
     • the interviewer may provide some hints or tips to steer you in the right direction
   • ask questions to help clarify scope and problem intention
     • How big is the size of the input?
     • How big is the range of values?
     • Input values
       • negative numbers
       • floating points
       • empty inputs
       • special characters
       • casing
     • Are there duplicates within the input?
     • What are some extreme cases of the input?
     • How is the input stored?
       • If you are given a dictionary of words, is it a list of strings or a trie?
2. Explain your high level approach
   • consider various approaches and explain out loud why it may or may not work
     • your interviewer might drop hints and lead you toward the right path
   • Start with a brute-force approach and communicate it to the interviewer
     • explain the time and space complexities and clarify why it is bad
       • you likely won't be coding the brute-force approach...
     • the interviewer will usually pop the dreaded, “Can we do better?” question
       • meaning they are looking for a more optimal approach
   • Only start coding after you and your interviewer have agreed on an approach
     • you have been given the green light
3. Start coding
   • general do's
     • keep code format clean and easy to read
     • use clear variable names (no single letter variables outside of iteration)

Finding Duplicates

• Sort array, then compare each item to it's neighbor
• use hashmap with value as key
• Set() then back to array using spread
• filter & index of
• reduce