Related Coding / DSA
Track the Median of a Growing Stream
Design a structure that supports inserting numbers one at a time from a stream and efficiently reporting the median of all numbers seen so far.
1. Problem Statement
You are given an array of integers and a window size k. Return an array containing the maximum value of every contiguous window of size k as it slides from the start of the array to the end.
2. Live Coding Format
Work in the provided coding workspace while explaining your decisions to the live interviewer. Validation may use inline tests, examples, comments, or a verbal walkthrough.
3. Key Focus Areas
- 1Problem clarification and contract
- 2Approach exploration and optimality
- 3Think-aloud communication and pacing
- 4Implementation correctness
- 5Code quality and language fluency
- 6Tests and dry run
- 7Debugging and self-correction
- 8Complexity analysis
- 9Follow-up performance
4. What Strong Candidates Should Demonstrate
- Clarify window size bounds and output length before coding.
- Explain a per-window rescan baseline and improve it to a linear-time solution.
- Think aloud while implementing readable, correct code.
- Validate with explicit expected outputs and a top-to-bottom dry run.
- Analyze time and space complexity and handle a focused follow-up extension.
Want interactive feedback?
Practice this problem in the live coding workspace while the interviewer probes your clarification, implementation, trade-offs, and validation.
Continue to DashboardCore Concepts
Hidden because they name the technique, which a real interviewer would not tell you.
Show core concepts
Monotonic QueuesDequesSliding WindowComplexity Analysis
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Fewest Moves to Solve a Sliding Tile Puzzle
Given a small 2-by-3 sliding tile puzzle board with one blank space, find the minimum number of adjacent tile slides needed to reach a specified target arrangement, or report it is unreachable.
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Count Contiguous Runs Summing to a Target
Given a sequence of integers (possibly negative) and a target sum, count how many contiguous subarrays sum exactly to the target.
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Maximize Sum with No Adjacent Elements
Given a list of integers, find the maximum sum you can obtain by choosing elements such that no two chosen elements are adjacent in the list. You may choose no elements, so the answer is 0 for an empty list or when every choice would reduce the sum.