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3 Backtracking Patterns in Coding Interviews

The document provides coding interview tips focused on backtracking patterns, specifically subsets, combinations, and permutations. It explains how to generate all subsets from a list of integers, produce combinations of a specific length, and create unique arrangements of numbers where order matters. Each section includes examples and emphasizes the importance of backtracking in exploring different possibilities.

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29 views5 pages

3 Backtracking Patterns in Coding Interviews

The document provides coding interview tips focused on backtracking patterns, specifically subsets, combinations, and permutations. It explains how to generate all subsets from a list of integers, produce combinations of a specific length, and create unique arrangements of numbers where order matters. Each section includes examples and emphasizes the importance of backtracking in exploring different possibilities.

Uploaded by

mdsahinsiraj2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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Coding Interview Tips: Patterns

3 Backtracking
Patterns in
Coding
Interviews
Subsets
Typically, you will be given a list of distinct, or non-distinct integers and
asked to produce all the subsets.

Explore all subsets down one path, then backtrack by

removing the last element and explore other subsets excluding

that element.

[] [1,2,3]

[1] [2] [3]


1 2 3
[1,2] [2,3]
2 3 3 Set A is a subset to Set B if all of its
elements are found in Set B. 


[1,3] Any set is a subset of itself and an empty
set is a subset of every set. 



3 Order is not important in subsets.

[1,2,3]
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Combinations
We’re given a range, [1,n] and asked to produce all possible
combinations of length k.

Similar to generating subsets, but the depth of our backtracking tree is


limited to k, ensuring that each combination contains exactly k
elements.

We explore all paths and backtrack to find other combinations


once the size of the tree becomes k.

n=4

k=2
1 2 3 4
2 3 4 3 4 4
[1,2], [1,3], [1,4], [2,3], [2,4], [3,4]
Given an array nums of 

unique integers, return all

the possible combinations.

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Permutations
A permutation is a unique arrangement of all the numbers in nums,
where order matters and no duplicates are allowed.

For example, [1,2,3] and [1,3,2] are two distinct permutations of [1,2,3].

In this case, the answer and the base case is the leaf nodes.

1 2 3

2 3 1 3 1 2

3 2 3 1 2 1

[1,2,3], [1,3,2], [2,1,3], [2,3,1], [3,1,2], [3,2,1]


Given an array nums of 

unique integers, return all the

possible permutations.

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