Introduction

In this blog post, we'll share the most commonly asked coding interview questions at Whatnot. If you don't have months to study for your interviews, you can use AI tools like Chatmagic to generate solutions quickly and efficiently - helping you pass the interviews and get the job offer!

Problem #1: Number of Islands

Given an m x n 2D binary grid grid which represents a map of '1's (land) and '0's (water), return the number of islands. An island is surrounded by water and is formed by connecting adjacent lands horizontally or vertically. You may assume all four edges of the grid are all surrounded by water. Example 1: Input: grid = [ ["1","1","1","1","0"], ["1","1","0","1","0"], ["1","1","0","0","0"], ["0","0","0","0","0"] ] Output: 1 Example 2: Input: grid = [ ["1","1","0","0","0"], ["1","1","0","0","0"], ["0","0","1","0","0"], ["0","0","0","1","1"] ] Output: 3 Constraints: m == grid.length n == grid[i].length 1 <= m, n <= 300 grid[i][j] is '0' or '1'.

Topics: Array, Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search, Union Find, Matrix

Problem #2: Search a 2D Matrix II

Write an efficient algorithm that searches for a value target in an m x n integer matrix matrix. This matrix has the following properties: Integers in each row are sorted in ascending from left to right. Integers in each column are sorted in ascending from top to bottom. Example 1: Input: matrix = [[1,4,7,11,15],[2,5,8,12,19],[3,6,9,16,22],[10,13,14,17,24],[18,21,23,26,30]], target = 5 Output: true Example 2: Input: matrix = [[1,4,7,11,15],[2,5,8,12,19],[3,6,9,16,22],[10,13,14,17,24],[18,21,23,26,30]], target = 20 Output: false Constraints: m == matrix.length n == matrix[i].length 1 <= n, m <= 300 -109 <= matrix[i][j] <= 109 All the integers in each row are sorted in ascending order. All the integers in each column are sorted in ascending order. -109 <= target <= 109

Topics: Array, Binary Search, Divide and Conquer, Matrix

Problem #3: Remove All Adjacent Duplicates In String

You are given a string s consisting of lowercase English letters. A duplicate removal consists of choosing two adjacent and equal letters and removing them. We repeatedly make duplicate removals on s until we no longer can. Return the final string after all such duplicate removals have been made. It can be proven that the answer is unique. Example 1: Input: s = "abbaca" Output: "ca" Explanation: For example, in "abbaca" we could remove "bb" since the letters are adjacent and equal, and this is the only possible move. The result of this move is that the string is "aaca", of which only "aa" is possible, so the final string is "ca". Example 2: Input: s = "azxxzy" Output: "ay" Constraints: 1 <= s.length <= 105 s consists of lowercase English letters.

Topics: String, Stack

Problem #4: Group Anagrams

Given an array of strings strs, group the anagrams together. You can return the answer in any order. Example 1: Input: strs = ["eat","tea","tan","ate","nat","bat"] Output: [["bat"],["nat","tan"],["ate","eat","tea"]] Explanation: There is no string in strs that can be rearranged to form "bat". The strings "nat" and "tan" are anagrams as they can be rearranged to form each other. The strings "ate", "eat", and "tea" are anagrams as they can be rearranged to form each other. Example 2: Input: strs = [""] Output: [[""]] Example 3: Input: strs = ["a"] Output: [["a"]] Constraints: 1 <= strs.length <= 104 0 <= strs[i].length <= 100 strs[i] consists of lowercase English letters.

Topics: Array, Hash Table, String, Sorting