Detect anagram in array
Last updated: October 7, 2025
Quick Overview
Given array, detect all occurrences of the anagram pattern.
Instacart
October 7, 20252
12
885 solved
Given array, detect all occurrences of the anagram pattern.
Coding interviews at Instacart focus on problem-solving approach as much as the final solution. The interviewer wants to see you break down the problem, consider edge cases, and optimize iteratively. Communication throughout the process is key.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Quickly identify the optimal approach and its theoretical basis
- Handle complex algorithm design with multiple interacting components
- Write concise, elegant code under time pressure
- Prove correctness of your approach and discuss alternative solutions
- Optimize beyond the obvious: discuss constant factor improvements
- Address follow-up variations and explain how the solution generalizes
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
- How would you test this solution thoroughly?
- Can you solve this iteratively instead of recursively (or vice versa)?
- What if the input doesn't fit in memory?
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Problem Analysis
To detect all occurrences of an anagram pattern in an array, we can utilize the sliding window technique alongside a hash map for frequency counting. The sliding window allows us to maintain a...
Approach
- Create a frequency map for the anagram pattern. For example, if the pattern is 'abc', the frequency map will be:
{ 'a': 1, 'b': 1, 'c': 1 }. - Initialize a sliding window of the same len...
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