🎯 Master Backtracking in Interviews
Backtracking feels scary at first — but here’s the trick: most interview questions repeat the same patterns. Once you master these, you can adapt them to almost any problem.
💡 Think of them as templates, not solutions.
🔑 Core Backtracking Patterns
- Subset Generation (Pick / Not Pick)
- Base of most problems like subsets, subsequences, power set.
- Key idea: At each step, choose to include or exclude an element.
- Permutation Building (Swap / Mark Visited)
- Used in string/array permutations, anagrams.
- Backtracking through all possible orders.
- Constraint Satisfaction (Place → Recurse → Remove)
- Classic for N-Queens, Sudoku.
- Try a candidate, recurse, undo if invalid.
- Path Exploration (DFS with Backtrack)
- Maze problems, word search, rat in a maze.
- Move in all directions, backtrack when blocked.
- Combination Sum (Target Reduction)
- Problems like “combination sum” or “coin change.”
- Choose a number, reduce target, recurse until zero.
🚀 Why This Works
👉 These 5 patterns cover 90%+ of backtracking problems you’ll face in interviews.
👉 Once you spot the pattern, it’s just about adjusting conditions and pruning.
📝 Action Plan for Learners
- Step 1: Solve 2–3 problems from each pattern.
- Step 2: Write down the template.
- Step 3: During interviews, map the problem → to the pattern.
🔥 Next time you see a backtracking problem, don’t panic — ask yourself:
“Which of the 5 patterns is this problem really using?”
✨ PS: I’m building Algopet, a SaaS that helps developers retain DSA patterns through gamified practice and spaced repetition — so you don’t just solve once and forget before the interview.
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