← AkunaCapital Interview Insights
My first instinct was to sort each string's characters and use that as a key in a set, which works fine.
Clarify the problem constraints (e.g., case sensitivity, input size) and then propose an efficient solution using a hash set to track canonical forms of anagrams. For each string, compute its canonical form (e.g., sorted characters) and check if it's already seen; if not, add it to the result and mark the canonical form as seen. Finally, sort the result lexicographically.
Pro tip: Mention that the canonical form can be a sorted string or a character count signature, and discuss the trade-offs (e.g., sorting is O(k log k) per string, counting is O(k) but may use more space). This shows awareness of optimization.
Ask about case sensitivity, whether strings can be empty, and if the input list can be modified. Confirm that 'earlier' means original order.
Decide on a method to identify anagrams: sorting characters or using a character frequency tuple. Consider time/space trade-offs.
Traverse the list in order, compute the canonical form for each string, and use a hash set to track seen forms. Keep only strings whose form is new.
Collect the kept strings and sort them lexicographically (using the language's default string comparison) before returning.
State the time complexity: O(n * k log k) for sorting each string, plus O(n log n) for final sort, where n is number of strings and k is max length. Space complexity O(n * k) for storing canonical forms.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.