software engineer interview questions specifically data structure

1. Explain the concept of time complexity and space complexity. How do they relate to data structures?

2. What is the difference between an array and a linked list? In which scenarios would you prefer one over the other?

3. Describe the process of reversing a linked list. What is the time complexity of your approach?

4. How would you check if a given linked list contains a cycle? Provide an efficient algorithm.

5. What is the difference between a static array and a dynamic array? How are they implemented?

6. Explain the concept of a binary search and its time complexity. When is it most effective?

7. Describe the process of implementing a stack using an array. What are the advantages and limitations of this approach?

8. How would you implement a queue using two stacks? Provide an efficient implementation.

9. What are the basic operations and time complexities of a binary search tree? How would you traverse a binary search tree in order?

10. Explain the concept of a hash table and its collision resolution techniques.

11. How would you implement a priority queue using a binary heap? What is the time complexity of the basic operations?

12. Describe the process of traversing a graph using depth-first search (DFS) and breadth-first search (BFS). What are their applications?

13. What is a self-balancing binary search tree, such as an AVL tree or a red-black tree? Explain how it maintains balance.

14. How would you find the kth largest element in an unsorted array? Provide an efficient algorithm.

15. Explain the concept of a trie and its use cases. How would you implement a trie?

16. Describe the concept of dynamic programming and provide an example problem where it can be applied.

17. What are some common sorting algorithms, such as bubble sort, merge sort, and quicksort? Explain their time complexities and trade-offs.

18. How would you efficiently find the median of a large dataset? Provide an algorithm with optimal time complexity.

19. Describe the process of finding the longest common subsequence between two strings. What is the dynamic programming approach for this problem?

20. Explain the concept of a skip list and its advantages over other data structures.