Highlight Overlapping Phrases in a Sentence

Question

This question asks the candidate to identify and highlight overlapping phrases within a given sentence, demonstrating their understanding of string manipulation and algorithmic thinking.

Codemia · Accepted Answer

To solve the problem of highlighting overlapping phrases in a sentence, I will first define what constitutes an overlapping phrase. I will then outline a plan to identify these phrases by iterating through the sentence and checking for overlaps using a hash map or a similar data structure.

1. **Input**: A sentence as a string.
2. **Process**: 
   - Split the sentence into words.
   - Use a nested loop to compare each word with every other word to find overlaps.
   - Store overlapping phrases in a list.
3. **Output**: Highlight the overlapping phrases in the original sentence.

Here is a sample Python code implementation:
```python
def highlight_overlaps(sentence):
    words = sentence.split()
    overlaps = []
    for i in range(len(words)):
        for j in range(i + 1, len(words)):
            if words[i] in words[j]:
                overlaps.append(words[i])
    highlighted_sentence = sentence
    for word in overlaps:
        highlighted_sentence = highlighted_sentence.replace(word, f'**{word}**')
    return highlighted_sentence
```
This code identifies overlapping phrases and highlights them using markdown syntax.

The time complexity of this algorithm is O(n^2) due to the nested loops, where n is the number of words in the sentence. The space complexity is O(k), where k is the number of overlapping phrases found, as we are storing them in a list.

I would consider edge cases such as:
- Sentences with no overlapping phrases, where the output should be the same as the input.
- Sentences with punctuation that may affect the overlap detection, which would require preprocessing the input to remove such characters.

Interviewers will be looking for clarity in your thought process, the efficiency of your algorithm, and your ability to handle edge cases. They want to see how you structure your code and whether you can explain your reasoning clearly.

Highlight Overlapping Phrases in a Sentence

Harvey

What the Interviewer Expects

Key Topics to Cover

How to Approach This

Possible Follow-up Questions

Sharpen Your Skills on Codemia

Sample Answer

Approach

Algorithm

Submit Your Answer

Harvey Software Engineer Interview Guide

Related Questions

Design a scalable Search System

Design a Video Streaming for Rippling

Design a Load Balancing Service

Design a Image Processing Service

Build a high-throughput Image Processing Pipeline