Design OOD for probabilistic Minesweeper
Object-Oriented Design: Probabilistic Minesweeper
Context
Design an object-oriented Minesweeper game. The game board is a grid of cells. Upon initialization, each cell is assigned a probability (prob) that it contains a mine. The system must utilize these probabilities to generate the initial mine layout and set the initial states of all cells. This generation process should be deterministic when required (e.g., for testing purposes) and random otherwise.
Assume the prob value can be provided in one of two forms:
- A single scalar value, uniformly applied to all cells on the board.
- A 2D grid of probabilities, with the same dimensions as the game board, allowing for varying mine probabilities per cell.
Requirements
- Explain the mechanism by which the per-cell probabilities are used to generate the initial mine layout and initialize cell states.
- Define the core classes of the system (e.g.,
Game,Board,Cell), detailing their responsibilities, relationships, and public APIs. Specifically, the design should support:- (a) Printing the current state of the game board.
- (b) Processing a user click on a cell.
- Specify the expected high-level state transitions that occur following a user click. This includes losing the game if a mine is clicked, and the standard Minesweeper reveal logic for non-mine cells.
- Describe how the system handles invalid or duplicate user clicks.
- Explain how the proposed design promotes maintainability and facilitates testing.
AI interview prep
Core dilemma
Designing a flexible, testable, and extensible object-oriented system for a game with a core probabilistic element, ensuring proper separation of concerns while accommodating varied input types for probability and supporting both deterministic and random generation.
3 tradeoffs and 3 stress tests locked
Interview prep
Unlock the interviewer X-Ray rubric, tradeoff matrix, stress tests, clarifying questions, and key concepts.
Design OOD for probabilistic Minesweeper
Object-Oriented Design: Probabilistic Minesweeper
Context
Design an object-oriented Minesweeper game. The game board is a grid of cells. Upon initialization, each cell is assigned a probability (prob) that it contains a mine. The system must utilize these probabilities to generate the initial mine layout and set the initial states of all cells. This generation process should be deterministic when required (e.g., for testing purposes) and random otherwise.
Assume the prob value can be provided in one of two forms:
- A single scalar value, uniformly applied to all cells on the board.
- A 2D grid of probabilities, with the same dimensions as the game board, allowing for varying mine probabilities per cell.
Requirements
- Explain the mechanism by which the per-cell probabilities are used to generate the initial mine layout and initialize cell states.
- Define the core classes of the system (e.g.,
Game,Board,Cell), detailing their responsibilities, relationships, and public APIs. Specifically, the design should support:- (a) Printing the current state of the game board.
- (b) Processing a user click on a cell.
- Specify the expected high-level state transitions that occur following a user click. This includes losing the game if a mine is clicked, and the standard Minesweeper reveal logic for non-mine cells.
- Describe how the system handles invalid or duplicate user clicks.
- Explain how the proposed design promotes maintainability and facilitates testing.