Topological Sort on string
Last updated: September 18, 2025
Quick Overview
Given a directed acyclic graph (DAG) represented as a list of strings, where each string denotes a vertex, implement a function to perform a topological sort on the graph. Your function should return a list of strings representing the vertices in a valid topological order. If the graph contains cycles, return an empty list.
Anthropic
September 18, 2025105
16
199 solved
Given a directed acyclic graph (DAG) represented as a list of strings, where each string denotes a vertex, implement a function to perform a topological sort on the graph. Your function should return a list of strings representing the vertices in a valid topological order. If the graph contains cycles, return an empty list.
This coding problem is frequently asked during Onsite at Anthropic. The interviewer is testing your ability to translate a problem into clean, working code while discussing time and space complexity. Anthropic 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
- How would you test this solution thoroughly?
- How would your solution change if the input was sorted?
- Can you solve this in a single pass?
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Practice DSA ProblemsSample Answer
Problem Analysis
The problem requires us to perform a topological sort on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) represented by a list of strings. This indicates that we can utilize graph traversal algorithms, specifically De...
Approach
- Build the Graph: Create an adjacency list from the list of strings, where each string represents a vertex. Initialize an in-degree count for each vertex.
- Populate the Graph: For each di...
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