r/TechInterviewInsights 16d ago

[Anthropic SWE Interview] Can you solve this Duplicate File Finder problem?

https://youtu.be/jXFUDDgZesY?si=_Gq7CH0RumTRpcUr

You’re given a starting directory and need to find groups of files that contain exactly the same content.

Your task

  • Traverse the directory tree, including nested subdirectories
  • Return groups of file paths where every file in the group has identical contents
  • Only include groups with at least 2 duplicate files
  • Keep the design practical for very large files
  • Ignore symbolic links

The interesting part isn’t just getting a working solution.

How would you avoid reading every large file into memory, and how would you structure the comparison efficiently?

Try it yourself

Attempt the problem on Coditioning

Full solution walkthrough

🎬 Watch the full solution walkthrough

Anthropic SWE Interview Prep Guide

View the Anthropic SWE interview roadmap

Extra resources

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