Best Patterns for Cracking Coding Interviews Using LeetCode.
LeetCode is a highly effective platform for preparing for coding interviews, but with thousands of problems, solving every one isn’t practical or necessary. The key to success is focusing on problem-solving patterns and knowing when to apply them. Here are 16 common patterns that frequently appear in coding interviews. Understanding these patterns and practicing related problems will greatly improve your chances of success in interviews.
1. Sliding Window Pattern: Useful for tracking a subset of data that changes over time, typically applied to arrays or strings.
2. Two Pointer Pattern: Uses two pointers working towards each other from different ends of an array, often used for pair-related problems.
3. Fast & Slow Pointer Pattern: Helps in detecting cycles within sequences by moving pointers at different speeds.
4. Merge Intervals Pattern: Used to merge overlapping intervals, useful in scheduling problems.
5. Cyclic Sort Pattern: Efficient for sorting elements within a specific range, such as finding missing numbers.
6. In-place Linked List Reversal Pattern: Focused on reversing linked lists directly in place.
7. Tree Breadth-First Search (BFS) Pattern: Explores nodes level by level in a tree structure.
8. Depth-First Search (DFS) Pattern: Goes as deep as possible into a branch of a tree before backtracking.
9. Two Heap Pattern: Maintains a dynamic dataset, often for finding medians from a stream of numbers.
10. Subset Pattern: Generates all possible subsets, useful for problems involving combinations and permutations.
11. Modified Binary Search Pattern: Efficient for searching elements in rotated or partially sorted arrays.
12. Bitwise XOR Pattern: Used for solving problems involving pairs of numbers, such as finding a single number among duplicates.
13. Top ‘K’ Elements Pattern: Uses heaps to find the top K elements in a dataset.
14. K-way Merge Pattern: Merges multiple sorted arrays efficiently.
15. 0/1 Knapsack Dynamic Programming Pattern: Optimizes resource allocation within constraints.
16. Topological Sort Graph Pattern: Determines task order in Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG).
By mastering these patterns and their associated LeetCode problems, you’ll be well-prepared for most coding interviews. Feel free to share this guide with your friends or keep it saved for future reference!
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