Interview Cake

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You're working with an intern that keeps coming to you with JavaScript code that won't run because the braces, brackets, and parentheses are off. To save you both some time, you decide to write a braces/brackets/parentheses validator.

Let's say:

  • '(', '{', '[' are called "openers."
  • ')', '}', ']' are called "closers."

Write an efficient function that tells us whether or not an input string's openers and closers are properly nested.

Examples:

  • "{ [ ] ( ) }" should return 1
  • "{ [ ( ] ) }" should return 0
  • "{ [ }" should return 0

Simply making sure each opener has a corresponding closer is not enough—we must also confirm that they are correctly ordered.

For example, "{ [ ( ] ) }" should return 0, even though each opener can be matched to a closer.

We can do this in time and space. One iteration is all we need!

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Where do I enter my password?

Actually, we don't support password-based login. Never have. Just the OAuth methods above. Why?

  1. It's easy and quick. No "reset password" flow. No password to forget.
  2. It lets us avoid storing passwords that hackers could access and use to try to log into our users' email or bank accounts.
  3. It makes it harder for one person to share a paid Interview Cake account with multiple people.

Start your free trial!

Log in or sign up with one click to get immediate access to free mock interview questions

Where do I enter my password?

Actually, we don't support password-based login. Never have. Just the OAuth methods above. Why?

  1. It's easy and quick. No "reset password" flow. No password to forget.
  2. It lets us avoid storing passwords that hackers could access and use to try to log into our users' email or bank accounts.
  3. It makes it harder for one person to share a paid Interview Cake account with multiple people.

time (one iteration through the string), and space (in the worst case, all of our characters are openers, so we push them all onto the stack).

In Ruby, sometimes expressions are surrounded by vertical bars, "|like this|". Extend your validator to validate vertical bars. Careful: there's no difference between the "opener" and "closer" in this case—they're the same character!

Start your free trial!

Log in or sign up with one click to get immediate access to free mock interview questions

Where do I enter my password?

Actually, we don't support password-based login. Never have. Just the OAuth methods above. Why?

  1. It's easy and quick. No "reset password" flow. No password to forget.
  2. It lets us avoid storing passwords that hackers could access and use to try to log into our users' email or bank accounts.
  3. It makes it harder for one person to share a paid Interview Cake account with multiple people.

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