Count Contiguous Runs Summing to a Target Coding / DSA Interview

1. Problem Statement

2. Live Coding Format

3. Key Focus Areas

• 1
  Problem clarification and contract
• 2
  Approach exploration and optimality
• 3
  Think-aloud communication and pacing
• 4
  Implementation correctness
• 5
  Code quality and language fluency
• 6
  Handwritten tests and dry run
• 7
  Debugging and self-correction
• 8
  Complexity analysis
• 9
  Follow-up performance

4. What Strong Candidates Should Demonstrate

• ✓Clarify sign, size, and zero-sum assumptions before coding.
• ✓Explain a brute-force baseline and improve to a prefix-sum with hash map frequency count.
• ✓Think aloud while implementing readable, correct code.
• ✓Validate with explicit expected outputs and a top-to-bottom handwritten dry run.
• ✓Analyze time and space complexity and handle a bounded follow-up modification.