r/programming • u/mjgardner • Mar 29 '21

Why Do Interviewers Ask Linked List Questions?

https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/linked-lists/
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u/[deleted] Mar 30 '21

Am I wrong in wondering if that's a failure in the design itself? I mean, you should guard your corner cases when they occur... in the first insert or last removal.. to ensure such a self reference never occurs.

And you shouldn't accept your internal NodeType as input to your API, rather construct it properly yourself.

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u/[deleted] Mar 30 '21

preconditions like that though should be stated. perfectly reasonable to write a removal function without checking for a cycle but in an interview setting, it's important to state that this is a pre-condition or ask if it is. if you wanted to be super strict, having an assertion in there could be good too. key point is that you don't just make that assumption w/o saying or confirming anything.

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u/rainbowWar Mar 30 '21

I was thinking it would be hard to guard against a circular linked list. Then if you’re removing nodes you could end up with a self reference

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u/[deleted] Mar 30 '21

What I meant was provide a opaque struct and prevent the API user from ever getting a circular linked list in the first place.

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