Find longest subsequence in linked list
Last updated: July 30, 2025
Quick Overview
Given a linked list, find the connected components efficiently using Topological Sort.
Bloomberg
July 30, 20256
11
4,323 solved
Given a linked list, find the connected components efficiently using Topological Sort.
This coding problem is frequently asked during Phone Screen at Bloomberg. The interviewer is testing your ability to translate a problem into clean, working code while discussing time and space complexity. Bloomberg expects candidates to write production-quality code, not just solve the puzzle.
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
- What happens if the input contains duplicates?
- How would you parallelize this solution?
- Can you solve this iteratively instead of recursively (or vice versa)?
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Practice DSA ProblemsSample Answer
Problem Analysis
The problem requires us to find the longest connected components in a linked list, which can be viewed as a graph traversal problem. Each node in the linked list can be treated as a vertex, and the ed...
Approach
- Input Representation: We will represent the linked list as a series of nodes, where each node points to the next node. The connected components will be given as a list of integers, each represe...
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