Are arrays important in an interview?

If you are a budding programmer, preparing for your next coding interview, you don’t want to miss out on any important topic!

From Arrays to Data Structures to Binary Trees, every topic holds a significant importance in a coding interview.

Though, one question most of the aspirants ask is “ Is Array an important topic to cover” or “ Do I have to prepare for array interview questions in advance”

Well, if you too have this question in mind, you are at the right place.

Are Arrays important in a coding interview?

Did you know?

 More than 20 questions in your coding interview test are alloted from the array section!

Considering that there are only 75 MCQs to solve in a coding or software developer online test, the section related to arrays is important for the programmers. 

From DSA sheet to “Cracking the Coding interview” all the programming interview prep guides focus on the array interview questions within the first part of the study material itself.

Hence, if you are about to start your interview preparation, you should know the kints and grits of arrays and its related concepts. 

What is an array?

An array is a collection of objects with a specific order and type. It is an ordered list of values that are stored in a specific location. 

Arrays can be used to store a list of words, colors, or any other type of object. The first element in an array is called the “index” which represents the number of the first element in the list. 

The last element in an array called the “length” represents the number of elements in the list.

For example, if you store student grades in five subjects, you do not need to define separate variables for each subject. Instead, you can define an array that stores data items in contiguous locations.

Series grades [5] define the grades a student achieves in her five different subjects. Each subject’s grade is at a specific position in the series. H. Grades[0] indicates the grade achieved in the first subject and grades[1] indicates the grade achieved in her second subject

Why do we need to use an array?

In programming and coding, most of the cases require storing large amounts of data of similar type. You need to store and retrieve data in a database. 

Hene, if you are storing a list of people, you need to retrieve them all in order. To do this, you will create a class that stores the list of people and has an interface that allows us to iterate over them. 

The class will also have two functions: one to add a new person to the list and one to remove someone from the list.

The usage of an array can be better defined if you understand the advantages of it.

What are the advantages of an array?

Take a look at a few of the advantages of using an array:

• Arrays are used for storing multiple pieces of data that are of the same type.

• Using an array can allow you to use any form of element or key on a random basis.

• Arrays always have a predefined style and they are stored in contiguous memory locations, so they never run out of memory or overflow.

• It’s convenient to store all kinds of data in a fixed size using an array.

• As the elements in the array are stored in consecutive memory locations, iterating over this data structure is trivial and accessing elements takes unit time if the index is known.

Real time uses of an array

Knowing the real time use of an array is significant for a programmer. From handling large sets of data to storing data efficiently, arrays are used for multiple purposes. 

Though, have you ever considered using an array in real time?

Check out the real time usages of an array:

• Contact lists that are saved on mobile phones and tablets

• Matrices use arrays that are utilised in different fields such as computer graphics, image processing, and more. 

• Arrays are also used in the online ticket booking portals. 

• Pages of the book. 

• IoT applications also make use of arrays because the number of values of an array remains constant and access is known to be fast. 

• It is also used in audio processing where each audio signal is represented by an array. All desktop/laptop screens are also multidimensional arrays of pixels.

 Looking at the real time applications and usages of an array, it is definitely justified why the interviewers mainly focus on the array interview question. 

Take a look at a few of the array based questions that are often asked in the coding interviews.

Coding questions based on arrays

Q. Write the code for finding the missing number in the given integer of an array between 1-100.

Q. Give the code for finding the duplicate number in a given set of an array.

Q. How will you find the smallest and largest numbers in a given unsorted array?

Q. Write the code for finding the duplicate numbers within an array if it consists of multiple duplicates.

Q. You have been given an unsorted array of integers, figure out the length of the longest consecutive elements in a sequence.

Q. How do you find the median of two different sorted arrays?

Q. Write the code for rotating an array right and left with a given number k.

Q. You have been given an array of integers that has been sorted in the ascending order, write the code for figuring out the starting and the end position of the given value.

Wrapping Up

From Amazon to Google code interview questions, you will definitely find array based as top priority in all of the coding interviews.

You can prepare this topic and other related topics to ace your interview with flying colors and to land your dream job.