Deletion distance dynamic programming

Feb. 12, 2018

Introduction

It is BC family day and I booked 10:00 AM mock interview. I wondered last night who will practice mock interview in the day time of Monday. I was wondering if I should work on something else, go out to play tennis, walk around the park, go shopping of fresh fruit and vegetables.

I started to work with the peer on the algorithm called Sudoku Solver. It is so much fun to work with the peer on this algorithm. I did one a few days ago on the engineer in silicon valley area, and I like the peer quick thinking and also very good communication skills. Specially when the peer asked me if everything looks good on my side.

My mock interview

I had to solve deletion distance using dynamic programming. What I did is to go over the example first, and then I explained how to solve the problem row by row.

Here is C# code. The peer advised me to optimize the space to O(m + n) instead of O(m * n).

Here is the graph I drew and then I worked with the example to explain the algorithm. I found out that I have more time to explain the algorithm using the graph and walk through the example slowly to explain the algorithm, in case there is any question from the peer, I can stop and then explain more.

I also start to learn that the coding part is less challenge compared to explanation of the algorithm.