Google Interview Question for Software Engineers


Country: United States




Comment hidden because of low score. Click to expand.
4
of 4 vote

what?

- Anonymous January 30, 2016 | Flag Reply
Comment hidden because of low score. Click to expand.
0
of 2 vote

This was not a trivial problem in implementation :-)

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void
print_array(int *arr, int size)
{
	int i;

	for(i=0; i<size; i++) {
		printf("%d ", arr[i]);
	}
	printf("\n");
}

/* Byte-wise swap two items of size SIZE. */
#define SWAP(a, b, size)                      \
do                                            \
{                                             \
	register size_t __size = (size);          \
	register char *__a = (a), *__b = (b);     \
	do                                        \
	{                                         \
		char __tmp = *__a;                    \
		*__a++ = *__b;                        \
		*__b++ = __tmp;                       \
	} while (--__size > 0);                   \
} while (0)

/* Byte-wise set one item of size SIZE. */
#define SET(a, b, size)                       \
do                                            \
{                                             \
	register size_t __size = (size);          \
	register char *__a = (a), *__b = (b);     \
	do                                        \
	{                                         \
		*__a++ = *__b++;                      \
	} while (--__size > 0);                   \
} while (0)

void
insertion_sort(void *ptr, int nitems, int item_size, int (*functionp)(const void *, const void *)) 
{
	int i=0;
	char *val, backup_val;
	int j;
	char *arg1, *arg2, *arg3;
	char *charPtr = (char *)ptr;

	for(j=0; j<nitems-1; j++) {			// 3 4 2 1....2 3 4 1.....1 2 3 4
		
		// Move last element of one sub-array to its final position.
		i = j+1;
		val = (charPtr + (i*item_size));
		SET(&backup_val, val, item_size);
		i--;

		for(i; i>=0; i--) {
			arg1 = (charPtr + (i*item_size));
			arg2 = &backup_val;
			if (functionp((void *)arg1, (void *)arg2) == 1) {
				arg3 = (charPtr + ((i+1)*item_size));
				SET(arg3, arg1, item_size);			// IMP: SET(dst, src)
			} else {
				break;
			}
		}
		arg1 = charPtr + ((i+1)*item_size);
		arg2 = &backup_val;
		SET(arg1, arg2, item_size); // found final place for one element
	}
}			
			

int 
compare_ints(const void *x, const void *y)
{
	int *a, *b;

	a = (int *)x;
	b = (int *)y;

	if (*a < *b) {
		return (-1);
	} else if (*a > *b) {
		return (1);
	} else {
		return (0);
	}
}

void 
GoogleSort(void *ptr, int nitems, int item_size, int (*functionp)(const void *, const void *)) 
{ 
	insertion_sort(ptr, nitems, item_size, functionp);			
}

int
main(void)
{
	int arr[] = {4, 3, 2, 1};

	printf("Array contents before sorting:\n");
	print_array(arr, sizeof(arr)/sizeof(int));

	GoogleSort(arr, sizeof(arr)/sizeof(int), sizeof(int), compare_ints);

	printf("Array contents after sorting:\n");
	print_array(arr, sizeof(arr)/sizeof(int));

	return (0);
}

- smallchallenges January 30, 2016 | Flag Reply
Comment hidden because of low score. Click to expand.
0
of 0 vote

@smallchallenges: This is the output:
Array contents before sorting:
4 3 2 1
Array contents after sorting:
-255 3 2 1

- tefposluszny February 06, 2016 | Flag Reply
Comment hidden because of low score. Click to expand.
0
of 0 vote

OK, I debugged it. Was fun to do with GDB. The function insertion_sort() where setting backup_val on its stack ;) Here is a fixed version:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void
print_array(int *arr, int size)
{
	int i;

	for(i=0; i<size; i++) {
		printf("%d ", arr[i]);
	}
	printf("\n");
}

/* Byte-wise swap two items of size SIZE. */
#define SWAP(a, b, size)                      \
do                                            \
{                                             \
	register size_t __size = (size);          \
	register char *__a = (a), *__b = (b);     \
	do                                        \
	{                                         \
		char __tmp = *__a;                    \
		*__a++ = *__b;                        \
		*__b++ = __tmp;                       \
	} while (--__size > 0);                   \
} while (0)

/* Byte-wise set one item of size SIZE. */
#define SET(a, b, size)                       \
do                                            \
{                                             \
	register size_t __size = (size);          \
	register char *__a = (a), *__b = (b);     \
	do                                        \
	{                                         \
		*(__a++) = *(__b++);                      \
	} while (--__size > 0);                   \
} while (0)

void
insertion_sort(void *ptr, int nitems, int item_size, int (*functionp)(const void *, const void *)) 
{
	int i=0;
	char *val, *backup_val = (char*)malloc(item_size);
	int j;
	char *arg1, *arg2, *arg3;
	char *charPtr = (char *)ptr;

	for(j=0; j<nitems-1; j++) {			// 3 4 2 1....2 3 4 1.....1 2 3 4
		
		// Move last element of one sub-array to its final position.
		i = j+1;
		val = (charPtr + (i*item_size));
		SET(backup_val, val, item_size);
		i--;

		for(; i>=0; i--) {
			arg1 = (charPtr + (i*item_size));
			arg2 = backup_val;
			if (functionp((void *)arg1, (void *)arg2) == 1) {
				arg3 = (charPtr + ((i+1)*item_size));
				SET(arg3, arg1, item_size);			// IMP: SET(dst, src)
			} else {
				break;
			}
		}
		arg1 = charPtr + ((i+1)*item_size);
		arg2 = backup_val;
		SET(arg1, arg2, item_size); // found final place for one element
	}
        free(backup_val);
}			
			

int 
compare_ints(const void *x, const void *y)
{
	int *a, *b;

	a = (int *)x;
	b = (int *)y;

	if (*a < *b) {
		return (-1);
	} else if (*a > *b) {
		return (1);
	} else {
		return (0);
	}
}

void 
GoogleSort(void *ptr, int nitems, int item_size, int (*functionp)(const void *, const void *)) 
{ 
	insertion_sort(ptr, nitems, item_size, functionp);			
}

int
main(void)
{
	int arr[] = {4, 3, 2, 1};

	printf("Array contents before sorting:\n");
	print_array(arr, sizeof(arr)/sizeof(int));

	GoogleSort(arr, sizeof(arr)/sizeof(int), sizeof(int), compare_ints);

	printf("Array contents after sorting:\n");
	print_array(arr, sizeof(arr)/sizeof(int));

	return (0);
}

- tefposluszny February 06, 2016 | Flag Reply
Comment hidden because of low score. Click to expand.
0
of 0 vote

Test

- JoseCuervo April 01, 2016 | Flag Reply
Comment hidden because of low score. Click to expand.
0
of 0 vote

#include <stdio.h>

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

void GoogleSort(void *ptr, int number, int SIZE, int (*functionp)(const void *, const void *))

{

for( int n = 0; n < number; n++ )

{

for(int m = n; m < number; m++)

{

if( functionp( (const char *)(ptr) + (n * SIZE), (const char *)(ptr) + (m * SIZE) ))

{

int temp = *((int *)ptr + m);

*((int*)ptr + m ) = *((int*)ptr + n );

*((int*)ptr + n ) = temp;

}

}

}

}

int compare(const void *a, const void *b)

{

if( *(int*)a > *(int*)b)

return 1;

else

return 0;

}

int main()

{

int arr [] = {2,5,7,9,4,2,6,4,5};

int size = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(int);

GoogleSort(arr, size, sizeof(int),  compare);

for(int n = 0; n < size; n++)

cout << arr[n] << " ";

return 0;

}

- ch April 24, 2016 | Flag Reply
Comment hidden because of low score. Click to expand.
0
of 0 vote

can i submit code?

- ch April 24, 2016 | Flag Reply


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