Binary Search on interval list
Last updated: December 29, 2025
Quick Overview
Given a list of intervals, implement a binary search algorithm to determine if a specific target value falls within any of the intervals. The input consists of a sorted list of intervals represented as pairs of integers, and the target value to search for. Your output should be a boolean indicating whether the target value is contained within any of the intervals.
Twitter/X
December 29, 202526
10
521 solved
Given a list of intervals, implement a binary search algorithm to determine if a specific target value falls within any of the intervals. The input consists of a sorted list of intervals represented as pairs of integers, and the target value to search for. Your output should be a boolean indicating whether the target value is contained within any of the intervals.
Twitter/X uses this problem in the Take-home Project to evaluate your algorithmic thinking. They expect you to discuss multiple approaches, analyze trade-offs between them, and implement the optimal solution with clean, readable code.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Recognize the underlying problem pattern (sliding window, two pointers, BFS/DFS, etc.)
- Discuss multiple approaches and trade-offs before coding
- Implement an optimal solution with clean, production-quality code
- Handle all edge cases including boundary conditions and invalid input
- Optimize both time and space complexity with clear justification
- Test your solution systematically with well-chosen examples
Key Topics to Cover
How to Approach This
- Clarify input constraints and edge cases before writing code.
- Walk through your approach verbally and confirm with the interviewer before coding.
- Start with a brute force solution, then optimize. Mention time and space complexity.
- Test your solution with examples, including edge cases like empty input or duplicates.
- Consider common patterns: sliding window, two pointers, hash map, BFS/DFS, dynamic programming.
Possible Follow-up Questions
- Can you solve this in a single pass?
- How would you modify your solution to handle streaming input?
- What is the worst-case input for your solution?
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Practice DSA ProblemsSample Answer
Problem Analysis
The problem requires us to determine if a target value falls within any of a list of sorted intervals. A suitable pattern for this problem is Binary Search because the intervals are sorted and we ...
Approach
We will implement a binary search algorithm to find the target value within the sorted intervals. The steps are as follows:
- Initialize Pointers: Set
leftto 0 andrightto the length of the...
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