Detect anagram in linked list
Last updated: July 3, 2025
Quick Overview
Given a linked list of characters, write a function to determine if any two substrings within the list are anagrams of each other. The function should return a boolean indicating the presence of at least one pair of anagrammatic substrings. The input will be the head of the linked list, and the output should be true if anagrams are found, otherwise false.
Cruise
July 3, 20254
4
356 solved
Given a linked list of characters, write a function to determine if any two substrings within the list are anagrams of each other. The function should return a boolean indicating the presence of at least one pair of anagrammatic substrings. The input will be the head of the linked list, and the output should be true if anagrams are found, otherwise false.
This coding problem is frequently asked during Technical Screen at Cruise. The interviewer is testing your ability to translate a problem into clean, working code while discussing time and space complexity. Cruise expects candidates to write production-quality code, not just solve the puzzle.
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 modify your solution to handle streaming input?
- What if the input doesn't fit in memory?
- Can you solve this iteratively instead of recursively (or vice versa)?
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Practice DSA ProblemsSample Answer
Problem Analysis
To determine if any two substrings within a linked list of characters are anagrams of each other, we can utilize the frequency counting pattern. Anagrams have identical character counts. Thus, we can ...
Approach
- Extract Characters: Convert the linked list into a string or an array for easier substring manipulation.
- Initialize a Hash Map: Use a hash map to store the frequency count of characters ...
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