Search Book Titles
Problem: Search Book Titles
You are tasked with designing and implementing an efficient function to search a given list of book titles based on a user query string. The function should return all titles deemed relevant to the query, adhering to specific matching rules and constraints.
Relevance Rules
A title is considered relevant if any token within the title matches the user query under at least one of the following conditions:
- Exact Match: The token is identical to the query, ignoring case.
- Autocomplete Match: The token starts with the query, ignoring case.
- Reordered-Letter Match (Anagram): The token is an anagram of the query, ignoring case. For example,
culbmatchesClubbecause they contain the same letters.
Requirements
- Each title must be tokenized into individual words by splitting on spaces.
- All matching operations must be case-insensitive.
- Each matching title should be returned at most once.
- The original input order of the titles must be preserved in the returned list.
Example
Given the titles: ["The Luck of Club"]
- Query:
"Luck"-> Returns["The Luck of Club"] - Query:
"luc"-> Returns["The Luck of Club"](becauselucis a prefix ofLuck) - Query:
"culb"-> Returns["The Luck of Club"](becauseculbis an anagram ofClub)
Discussion Point
Beyond implementation, you should be prepared to discuss the trade-offs between preprocessing the titles (e.g., building an index) and the speed at which queries can be answered.
AI interview prep
Core dilemma
Balancing the cost and complexity of preprocessing a potentially large dataset of book titles (especially for anagram matching) against the need for extremely fast, low-latency query responses for multiple search criteria.
3 tradeoffs and 3 stress tests locked
Interview prep
Unlock the interviewer X-Ray rubric, tradeoff matrix, stress tests, clarifying questions, and key concepts.
Search Book Titles
Problem: Search Book Titles
You are tasked with designing and implementing an efficient function to search a given list of book titles based on a user query string. The function should return all titles deemed relevant to the query, adhering to specific matching rules and constraints.
Relevance Rules
A title is considered relevant if any token within the title matches the user query under at least one of the following conditions:
- Exact Match: The token is identical to the query, ignoring case.
- Autocomplete Match: The token starts with the query, ignoring case.
- Reordered-Letter Match (Anagram): The token is an anagram of the query, ignoring case. For example,
culbmatchesClubbecause they contain the same letters.
Requirements
- Each title must be tokenized into individual words by splitting on spaces.
- All matching operations must be case-insensitive.
- Each matching title should be returned at most once.
- The original input order of the titles must be preserved in the returned list.
Example
Given the titles: ["The Luck of Club"]
- Query:
"Luck"-> Returns["The Luck of Club"] - Query:
"luc"-> Returns["The Luck of Club"](becauselucis a prefix ofLuck) - Query:
"culb"-> Returns["The Luck of Club"](becauseculbis an anagram ofClub)
Discussion Point
Beyond implementation, you should be prepared to discuss the trade-offs between preprocessing the titles (e.g., building an index) and the speed at which queries can be answered.