Sliding Window on interval list
Last updated: September 15, 2025
Quick Overview
Given a list of intervals, implement a sliding window approach to merge overlapping intervals and return a list of non-overlapping intervals. The input is a list of intervals represented as pairs of integers, and the output should be a new list of merged intervals. Ensure that your solution efficiently handles the merging process while maintaining the order of the intervals.
Discord
September 15, 20257
11
670 solved
Given a list of intervals, implement a sliding window approach to merge overlapping intervals and return a list of non-overlapping intervals. The input is a list of intervals represented as pairs of integers, and the output should be a new list of merged intervals. Ensure that your solution efficiently handles the merging process while maintaining the order of the intervals.
Coding interviews at Discord focus on problem-solving approach as much as the final solution. The interviewer wants to see you break down the problem, consider edge cases, and optimize iteratively. Communication throughout the process is key.
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
- Can you optimize the space complexity of your solution?
- Can you solve this in a single pass?
- How would you test this solution thoroughly?
- Can you solve this iteratively instead of recursively (or vice versa)?
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Problem Analysis
The problem requires us to merge overlapping intervals in a list of intervals. The sliding window approach is applicable here because once we sort the intervals based on their start times, we can trav...
Approach
- Sort the Intervals: First, sort the list of intervals based on their starting times. For example, given intervals [[1,3], [2,6], [8,10], [15,18]], after sorting we have [[1,3], [2,6], [8,10], [...
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