4 Hacks for Finding the Optimal Answer in Coding Interview QUICKLY!

have you ever been flustered in the coding interview maybe it was because you weren't able to find the right data structures or algorithms to use in the problem quickly in this video I'm going to show you how to find the optimal answer in the coding interview quickly just as an example let's consider this maximum subarray problem now what's a subarray a subarray is basically an array within an array so an example of a subarray would be 21 or could be just one element3 or it could be the whole array that's also a subarray but if we had instead -3 and let's say one that's not a subarray because these are not contigous elements so a subarray is a set of continuous elements within the given array now the problem here is finding the subarray with the maximum sum here's what I mean if we look at this subarray 2 one the sum is 2 + 1 = 3 and if you look at this subarray with just3 the sum is3 and we are trying to find the one with the maximum sum and in this example it's actually 21 with the sum three and you can check it yourself too and let's say you're given this problem in your interview and you don't know how to solve it and you can't figure out the solution right away what should you do about it there are four tips I want to give you here for finding the right solution very quickly tip number four is just say can I think for a second whenever you start thinking you know most candidates become completely silent when they start thinking and it could be really awkward for the interviewer because they don't know what you're doing so you should really clarify whenever you start thinking tip number three is think out loud once you say that phrase canot think for a second you should start thinking out loud instead of silently I know for some people it's easier to think silently but you don't have to overdo this you just need to let the interviewer know where you are in your thought process and the way I would do it might be something like this I would say okay I noticed that there are positive numbers here in this example and also negative numbers and if we only had positive numbers let's say one two 1 then the problem would be much easier because then the maximum sub array would just be the whole array so what makes it hard is the fact that we have negative numbers so maybe we can do something separate to the negative numbers and the positive numbers in the array and when you say something like that the interviewer is going to say either okay you're going in the right direction or in the wrong direction and that's going to be really helpful for figuring out what the right solution is so you shouldn't think of the interview as a monologue or a solo problem solving session you should think of it as more of a collaborative thing as a conversation so you shouldn't have to solve everything by yourself when the average candidate is given a problem they just start writing code but you shouldn't do that you should first think through examples and think of a few more examples than uh that just given one so in this problem I might say okay this is a of course a Give an example but I can think of a few more examples what about all positive numbers and what about maybe all negative numbers and when you start thinking through examples you'll be able to think in a much more concrete way than trying to think of everything in an abstract way let's say you start thinking through examples and you come up with a solution then uh you should ask does this seem like a good strategy unless you're 100% sure that your solution is optimal and the way I would do it in this example might be something like this I would say okay my solution would be compare all the sub uh all the possible subarrays so the ones starting at the first index and then the ones uh starting at the second index and I'll compute the sum for each subarray and I'll just pick the one with the maximum sum so it's a Brute Force strategy and then I would ask to the interviewer does this seem like a good strategy when you say that you're essentially giving some space to the interviewer so they can give you feedback as to if you're going in the wrong direction or if your solution is really optimal and this way you don't have to waste time writing code because you didn't write code in the first place you don't have to waste time writing code for a solution that doesn't work or that's not optimal so just to recap say can I think for a second when you start thinking think out loud instead of silently you don't have to overdo this you just need to let the interview know where you're thinking from time to time and don't start writing code right away use examples first and finally when you come up with a solution just ask does it seem like a good strategy and these are my four tips for finding the optimal solution in a coding interview quickly I hope you like the video if you want to watch more videos like this you can click right here to subscribe to my channel and see you soon