Introduction

In this blog post, we'll share the most commonly asked coding interview questions at Karat. 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: Text Justification

Given an array of strings words and a width maxWidth, format the text such that each line has exactly maxWidth characters and is fully (left and right) justified. You should pack your words in a greedy approach; that is, pack as many words as you can in each line. Pad extra spaces ' ' when necessary so that each line has exactly maxWidth characters. Extra spaces between words should be distributed as evenly as possible. If the number of spaces on a line does not divide evenly between words, the empty slots on the left will be assigned more spaces than the slots on the right. For the last line of text, it should be left-justified, and no extra space is inserted between words. Note: A word is defined as a character sequence consisting of non-space characters only. Each word's length is guaranteed to be greater than 0 and not exceed maxWidth. The input array words contains at least one word. Example 1: Input: words = ["This", "is", "an", "example", "of", "text", "justification."], maxWidth = 16 Output: [ "This is an", "example of text", "justification. " ] Example 2: Input: words = ["What","must","be","acknowledgment","shall","be"], maxWidth = 16 Output: [ "What must be", "acknowledgment ", "shall be " ] Explanation: Note that the last line is "shall be " instead of "shall be", because the last line must be left-justified instead of fully-justified. Note that the second line is also left-justified because it contains only one word. Example 3: Input: words = ["Science","is","what","we","understand","well","enough","to","explain","to","a","computer.","Art","is","everything","else","we","do"], maxWidth = 20 Output: [ "Science is what we", "understand well", "enough to explain to", "a computer. Art is", "everything else we", "do " ] Constraints: 1 <= words.length <= 300 1 <= words[i].length <= 20 words[i] consists of only English letters and symbols. 1 <= maxWidth <= 100 words[i].length <= maxWidth

Topics: Array, String, Simulation

Problem #2: Word Search

Given an m x n grid of characters board and a string word, return true if word exists in the grid. The word can be constructed from letters of sequentially adjacent cells, where adjacent cells are horizontally or vertically neighboring. The same letter cell may not be used more than once. Example 1: Input: board = [["A","B","C","E"],["S","F","C","S"],["A","D","E","E"]], word = "ABCCED" Output: true Example 2: Input: board = [["A","B","C","E"],["S","F","C","S"],["A","D","E","E"]], word = "SEE" Output: true Example 3: Input: board = [["A","B","C","E"],["S","F","C","S"],["A","D","E","E"]], word = "ABCB" Output: false Constraints: m == board.length n = board[i].length 1 <= m, n <= 6 1 <= word.length <= 15 board and word consists of only lowercase and uppercase English letters. Follow up: Could you use search pruning to make your solution faster with a larger board?

Topics: Array, String, Backtracking, Depth-First Search, Matrix

Problem #3: Check if Every Row and Column Contains All Numbers

An n x n matrix is valid if every row and every column contains all the integers from 1 to n (inclusive). Given an n x n integer matrix matrix, return true if the matrix is valid. Otherwise, return false. Example 1: Input: matrix = [[1,2,3],[3,1,2],[2,3,1]] Output: true Explanation: In this case, n = 3, and every row and column contains the numbers 1, 2, and 3. Hence, we return true. Example 2: Input: matrix = [[1,1,1],[1,2,3],[1,2,3]] Output: false Explanation: In this case, n = 3, but the first row and the first column do not contain the numbers 2 or 3. Hence, we return false. Constraints: n == matrix.length == matrix[i].length 1 <= n <= 100 1 <= matrix[i][j] <= n

Topics: Array, Hash Table, Matrix

Problem #4: Find Words That Can Be Formed by Characters

You are given an array of strings words and a string chars. A string is good if it can be formed by characters from chars (each character can only be used once). Return the sum of lengths of all good strings in words. Example 1: Input: words = ["cat","bt","hat","tree"], chars = "atach" Output: 6 Explanation: The strings that can be formed are "cat" and "hat" so the answer is 3 + 3 = 6. Example 2: Input: words = ["hello","world","leetcode"], chars = "welldonehoneyr" Output: 10 Explanation: The strings that can be formed are "hello" and "world" so the answer is 5 + 5 = 10. Constraints: 1 <= words.length <= 1000 1 <= words[i].length, chars.length <= 100 words[i] and chars consist of lowercase English letters.

Topics: Array, Hash Table, String, Counting

Problem #5: Ransom Note

Given two strings ransomNote and magazine, return true if ransomNote can be constructed by using the letters from magazine and false otherwise. Each letter in magazine can only be used once in ransomNote. Example 1: Input: ransomNote = "a", magazine = "b" Output: false Example 2: Input: ransomNote = "aa", magazine = "ab" Output: false Example 3: Input: ransomNote = "aa", magazine = "aab" Output: true Constraints: 1 <= ransomNote.length, magazine.length <= 105 ransomNote and magazine consist of lowercase English letters.

Topics: Hash Table, String, Counting

Problem #6: Alert Using Same Key-Card Three or More Times in a One Hour Period

LeetCode company workers use key-cards to unlock office doors. Each time a worker uses their key-card, the security system saves the worker's name and the time when it was used. The system emits an alert if any worker uses the key-card three or more times in a one-hour period. You are given a list of strings keyName and keyTime where [keyName[i], keyTime[i]] corresponds to a person's name and the time when their key-card was used in a single day. Access times are given in the 24-hour time format "HH:MM", such as "23:51" and "09:49". Return a list of unique worker names who received an alert for frequent keycard use. Sort the names in ascending order alphabetically. Notice that "10:00" - "11:00" is considered to be within a one-hour period, while "22:51" - "23:52" is not considered to be within a one-hour period. Example 1: Input: keyName = ["daniel","daniel","daniel","luis","luis","luis","luis"], keyTime = ["10:00","10:40","11:00","09:00","11:00","13:00","15:00"] Output: ["daniel"] Explanation: "daniel" used the keycard 3 times in a one-hour period ("10:00","10:40", "11:00"). Example 2: Input: keyName = ["alice","alice","alice","bob","bob","bob","bob"], keyTime = ["12:01","12:00","18:00","21:00","21:20","21:30","23:00"] Output: ["bob"] Explanation: "bob" used the keycard 3 times in a one-hour period ("21:00","21:20", "21:30"). Constraints: 1 <= keyName.length, keyTime.length <= 105 keyName.length == keyTime.length keyTime[i] is in the format "HH:MM". [keyName[i], keyTime[i]] is unique. 1 <= keyName[i].length <= 10 keyName[i] contains only lowercase English letters.

Topics: Array, Hash Table, String, Sorting

Problem #7: Jump Game

You are given an integer array nums. You are initially positioned at the array's first index, and each element in the array represents your maximum jump length at that position. Return true if you can reach the last index, or false otherwise. Example 1: Input: nums = [2,3,1,1,4] Output: true Explanation: Jump 1 step from index 0 to 1, then 3 steps to the last index. Example 2: Input: nums = [3,2,1,0,4] Output: false Explanation: You will always arrive at index 3 no matter what. Its maximum jump length is 0, which makes it impossible to reach the last index. Constraints: 1 <= nums.length <= 104 0 <= nums[i] <= 105

Topics: Array, Dynamic Programming, Greedy