The Power of One - codepath/compsci_guides GitHub Wiki

Unit 6 Session 1 (Click for link to problem statements)

Problem Highlights

• 💡 Difficulty: Easy
• ⏰ Time to complete: 5 mins
• 🛠️ Topics: Linked List, Data Structures, Code Refactoring

1: U-nderstand

Understand what the interviewer is asking for by using test cases and questions about the problem.

• Have fully understood the problem and have no clarifying questions.

2: M-atch

Match what this problem looks like to known categories of problems, e.g. Linked List or Dynamic Programming, and strategies or patterns in those categories.

This task involves creating a linked list in a more compact and efficient manner than originally provided, showcasing how constructor chaining can be used to streamline the code.

3: P-lan

Plan the solution with appropriate visualizations and pseudocode.

General Idea: Instead of manually linking each node line by line, use constructor nesting to directly link all nodes in a single statement.

4: I-mplement

Implement the code to solve the algorithm.

head = Node("Ash", Node("Misty", Node("Brock")))

5: R-eview

Review the code by running specific example(s) and recording values (watchlist) of your code's variables along the way.

• The new implementation should create a linked list starting at "Ash" and ending at "Brock" without any intermediary steps or additional assignments.

6: E-valuate

Evaluate the performance of your algorithm and state any strong/weak or future potential work.

• Time Complexity: The constructor for each node is called once, resulting in constant time operations for each node creation. The overall time complexity for creating the linked list is O(1) as the operations do not depend on the length of the list or scale with more data.
• Space Complexity: Each node creation uses a constant amount of space. The total space used is proportional to the number of nodes, which in this fixed example, remains constant (O(1)).