Implement Trie with without recursion

Last updated: May 28, 2026

Quick Overview

Implement a Trie data structure that supports get and put operations in O(log n) time.

Lyft
Coding & Algorithms
Software Engineer
Lyft
May 28, 2026
Software Engineer
Take-home Project
Coding & Algorithms
Hard

72

2

2,883 solved


Implement a Trie data structure that supports get and put operations in O(log n) time.

Lyft uses this problem in the Take-home Project to evaluate your algorithmic thinking. They expect you to discuss multiple approaches, analyze trade-offs between them, and implement the optimal solution with clean, readable code.

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
Hash maps and frequency counting
Dynamic programming and memoization
Data structure selection and trade-offs
Sorting and searching
Edge cases and input validation
How to Approach This
  1. Clarify input constraints and edge cases before writing code.
  2. Walk through your approach verbally and confirm with the interviewer before coding.
  3. Start with a brute force solution, then optimize. Mention time and space complexity.
  4. Test your solution with examples, including edge cases like empty input or duplicates.
  5. 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?
  • How would you parallelize this solution?
  • Can you optimize the space complexity of your solution?
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Sample Answer
Problem Analysis

The problem requires implementing a Trie (prefix tree) data structure to efficiently support put and get operations in O(log n) time complexity. A Trie is particularly suitable for this task becau...

Approach

We will implement the Trie using a class structure that includes an inner class for the TrieNode. Each node will store a dictionary to represent its children and a boolean flag to indicate if it is th...


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