Google Software Developer Mock Interview
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Question 4 of 30
Based on your experience, what's the best way to find a node that begins with two single link lists?
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William Swansen has worked in the employment assistance realm since 2007. He is an author, job search strategist, and career advisor who helps individuals worldwide and in various professions to find their ideal careers.
You will find that Google interviewers like to ask candidates about the various methods they use to find nodes and link lists. Don't be surprised if this question comes up a couple of times in an interview but is asked differently. To get a broader understanding of linked lists, here's an overview: A linked list is easiest explained as a linear data structure with the collection of multiple nodes, where each element stores its data and a pointer to the location of the next element. The last link is essentially a linked list that points to null, which indicates it's at the end of a chain. An element, on the other hand, in a linked list is called a node. The first of the nodes is called the head, and the last of the nodes is called the tail. An interviewer will likely dig into questions about linear data structure and which nodes contain a value and pointer.
William Swansen has worked in the employment assistance realm since 2007. He is an author, job search strategist, and career advisor who helps individuals worldwide and in various professions to find their ideal careers.
"The best example I can give is to list the most important properties of a class Linked List. This highlights how they are used and why they are used.
A Linked List maintains an insertion order of the elements.
Implements Queue and Deque interfaces. These can also be used as a Queue, Deque, or Stack.
A Linked List can contain all the elements, including but not limited to duplicates and null.
A Java Linked List Class library is not synchronized, which means in a multi-threaded environment, it must be synchronized concurrently for external modifications to the linked list.
A Linked List Class doesn't implement a Random Access interface so that elements can be accessed in sequential order.
I can use a List Iterator to iterate elements of the list
I can use a collections synchronized List (new Linked List) to get a synchronized linked list."
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