Villager Class - codepath/compsci_guides GitHub Wiki

TIP102 Unit 5 Session 1 Advanced (Click for link to problem statements)

Problem Highlights

  • 💡 Difficulty: Easy
  • ⏰ Time to complete: 5 mins
  • 🛠️ Topics: Classes, Constructors

1: U-nderstand

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

  • Established a set (2-3) of test cases to verify their own solution later.
  • Established a set (1-2) of edge cases to verify their solution handles complexities.
  • Have fully understood the problem and have no clarifying questions.
  • Have you verified any Time/Space Constraints for this problem?
  • What are the required arguments for the constructor?
    • name, species, and catchphrase.
  • What properties does the class Villager have?
    • name, species, catchphrase, and furniture.
HAPPY CASE
Input: ("Apollo", "Eagle", "pah")
Output: 
Apollo
Eagle
pah
[]
Explanation: The constructor correctly initializes the properties.

EDGE CASE
Input: (", ", ")
Output: 
(empty string)
(empty string)
(empty string)
[]
Explanation: The constructor handles empty strings correctly.

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.

For Class Constructor problems, we want to consider the following approaches:

  • Initialization of properties
  • Handling default values

3: P-lan

Plan the solution with appropriate visualizations and pseudocode.

General Idea: We need to define the __init__() constructor to initialize the properties of the Villager class.

1) Define the class `Villager`.
2) Define the `__init__()` constructor with parameters `name`, `species`, and `catchphrase`.
3) Initialize the `name` property with the `name` parameter.
4) Initialize the `species` property with the `species` parameter.
5) Initialize the `catchphrase` property with the `catchphrase` parameter.
6) Initialize the `furniture` property as an empty list.

⚠️ Common Mistakes

  • Forgetting to initialize all required properties.
  • Misspelling property names, leading to attribute errors.

4: I-mplement

Implement the code to solve the algorithm.

class Villager:
    def __init__(self, name, species, catchphrase):
        self.name = name
        self.species = species
        self.catchphrase = catchphrase
        self.furniture = []

# Example Usage:
apollo = Villager("Apollo", "Eagle", "pah")
print(apollo.name)       # Output: Apollo
print(apollo.species)    # Output: Eagle
print(apollo.catchphrase) # Output: pah
print(apollo.furniture)  # Output: []

5: R-eview

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

Initialized properties: name, species, catchphrase, and furniture Verify the example usage produces the correct output.

6: E-valuate

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

Assume N represents the number of instances created.

  • Time Complexity: O(1) because the initialization of properties is a constant-time operation.
  • Space Complexity: O(N) because each instance takes a fixed amount of space, and more instances require more space linearly."