Find connected components in interval list
Last updated: February 9, 2026
Quick Overview
Given a list of intervals, write a function to find and return all connected components, where two intervals are considered connected if they overlap or are adjacent. The input will be a list of intervals represented as pairs of integers, and the output should be a list of merged intervals that represent the connected components. Ensure your solution is efficient, ideally with a time complexity of O(n log n).
PlanetScale
February 9, 20262
11
706 solved
Given a list of intervals, write a function to find and return all connected components, where two intervals are considered connected if they overlap or are adjacent. The input will be a list of intervals represented as pairs of integers, and the output should be a list of merged intervals that represent the connected components. Ensure your solution is efficient, ideally with a time complexity of O(n log n).
This coding problem is frequently asked during Technical Screen at PlanetScale. The interviewer is testing your ability to translate a problem into clean, working code while discussing time and space complexity. PlanetScale 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
- What if the input doesn't fit in memory?
- 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 finding connected components in a list of intervals, where intervals are connected if they overlap or are adjacent. This can be efficiently solved using a sorting approach followe...
Approach
- Sort the Intervals: Start by sorting the intervals based on their starting point. This ensures that we can easily identify overlapping or adjacent intervals. For example, given intervals `[[1, ...
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