Validate graph symmetric
Last updated: April 16, 2026
Quick Overview
Given an undirected graph represented as an adjacency list, write a function to determine if the graph is symmetric. A graph is considered symmetric if for every edge (u, v), there is a corresponding edge (v, u). The function should return a boolean value indicating whether the graph satisfies this property.
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Given an undirected graph represented as an adjacency list, write a function to determine if the graph is symmetric. A graph is considered symmetric if for every edge (u, v), there is a corresponding edge (v, u). The function should return a boolean value indicating whether the graph satisfies this property.
This coding problem is frequently asked during Technical Screen at LinkedIn. The interviewer is testing your ability to translate a problem into clean, working code while discussing time and space complexity. LinkedIn expects candidates to write production-quality code, not just solve the puzzle.
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
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 parallelize this solution?
- How would you test this solution thoroughly?
- How would your solution change if the input was sorted?
- What happens if the input contains duplicates?
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Problem Analysis
To determine if a graph is symmetric, we need to check if for every edge (u, v), there exists an edge (v, u). This is a straightforward graph validation problem, which can be efficiently solved using ...
Approach
- Initialize a hashmap (or dictionary) to represent the graph based on the given adjacency list.
- Iterate through each vertex in the graph.
- For each vertex u, iterate through its list of neighbo...
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