Scribd
Upload
279 views

Most Important Concepts in C and C++ That Should Be Learnt and Understood Before A Programming Interview - Quora

The document discusses the most important concepts in C and C++ that should be understood before a programming interview. It recommends focusing on C++ rather than C, and learning the C++ Standard Template Library (STL) thoroughly. Key data structures to understand include vectors, maps, sets, stacks, queues, and graphs. Important algorithms include sorting, searching, merging, permutations, and mathematics functions. Pointers, classes, structs, and other object-oriented concepts are also important. Mastering STL data structures and algorithms is critical, as interview questions may expect them to be used directly without reimplementation.

Uploaded by

deepanshugabba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
279 views

Most Important Concepts in C and C++ That Should Be Learnt and Understood Before A Programming Interview - Quora

The document discusses the most important concepts in C and C++ that should be understood before a programming interview. It recommends focusing on C++ rather than C, and learning the C++ Standard Template Library (STL) thoroughly. Key data structures to understand include vectors, maps, sets, stacks, queues, and graphs. Important algorithms include sorting, searching, merging, permutations, and mathematics functions. Pointers, classes, structs, and other object-oriented concepts are also important. Mastering STL data structures and algorithms is critical, as interview questions may expect them to be used directly without reimplementation.

Uploaded by

deepanshugabba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

2017-5-31 Jimmy Saade's answer to What are the most important concepts in C and C++ that should be learnt

and understood before a

Ask or Search Quora Ask Question Read Answer Notifications Deepanshu

What are the most important concepts in C


and C++ that should be learnt and understood
before a programming interview?
I don't have much time left for my interviews. So please suggest to me the concepts I must
know before going for the interview.

Sergey Zubkov upvoted this


Jimmy Saade, software engineer at Facebook
Updated Jul 30, 2015

Forget C, use C++, and learn STL.


Note: I used STL and the C++ Standard Library interchangeably in this answer
(though I probably shouldn't have). All the below structures and algorithms are in the
C++ Standard Library, so it's what you need to learn.

All of the following are must-knows:

Data Structures
You should know how to use all these + all their related functions + the time
complexity of all these functions + (probably) how these functions work
vectors (dynamic arrays) - know why push_back is amortized constant, not
just that it is so

maps and sets (red-black BSTs usually)

unordered_maps and unordered_sets (hash tables)

stacks/queues/deques/lists

priority_queues (though I'd argue in an interview you should just use a


map since it can do anything a priority_queue can do and more)

You should also know what iterators are and how to use them with the above data
structures and below algorithms, because you need to when using STL.

Graphs are also important to know how to implement. For interviews, I usually use a
vector of vectors for an adjacency-list (or even adjacency-matrix) representation just
because it's fast to implement and usually is sucient enough for you to write your
algorithm, but alternatives are also feasible and some people may prefer building it
from scratch using classes/structs/pointers. In many cases you can just forgo building
the graph completely during an interview and assume you have it given, and in some
cases you shouldn't build the graph at all, but rather have your algorithm dynamically
generate the needed parts as it executes.

Algorithms
Aside from all the related functions for the data structures above, the algorithm
library is extremely important, and you should probably know every function in it as
well as how it's implemented and its time/space complexity (because all of these are
fair game for interview questions and you might be asked to implement them from
scratch, though probably without as much generalization as STL). Here are the most
important ones, though, in my opinion:
sort

stable_sort

nth_element
Upvoted 167 Downvote Comments 6+

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-important-concepts-in-C-and-C++-that-should-be-learnt-and-understood-before-a-progra 1/3
2017-5-31 Jimmy Saade's answer to What are the most important concepts in C and C++ that should be learnt and understood before a
lower_bound
Ask or Search Quora Ask Question Read Answer Notifications Deepanshu
upper_bound

merge/inplace_merge

next_permutation/prev_permutation

rotate

reverse

Familiarizing yourself with the various math functions via the cmath library is
probably also a good idea, just in case you need them, though if you need a tan
function in an interview you can probably just tell your interviewer "I'm going to
assume I have a function to calculate tan(x)" and it'd be ne.

Pointers, Classes/Structs, and OOP Concepts


You should know these at least enough to make a linked list and trie (which are the
most useful data structure that is not implemented in STL) in about 5-7 minutes,
complete with an insert (or search) function (and yes you may be asked to do this in
an interview). You should be very comfortable with them - I doubt pointers and
classes will be explicitly asked about (you might be asked about OOP Concepts
though), but you may very well have to use them.

Why You Should Know All This


Read this answer for the full version: Jimmy Saade's answer to How do I get a job at
Facebook or Google in 6 months?
But basically, there are a lot of questions which rely on you knowing/having/being
able to use these data structures/algorithms directly, without implementing them -
especially sort and vectors, maps, and unordered_maps. Your solution to the
asked question may require a hash table or heap to achieve a decent time complexity,
or require that you sort the input - are you really going to implement these in the span
of a 45 minute interview? No, and neither are you expected to. You're expected to
make it easy on yourself and use STL, because the rest of the algorithm you're coding
up is already going to be complex enough, plus you're never going to that in real life,
and it shows you know not to re-make stu that's already at your disposal.
The exception to this is if you're explicitly asked to implement something already in
STL. For example, if you're asked to implement the next_permutation function, you
obviously shouldn't use the STL function, though you could (and probably should)
note that there is such a function in STL. But basically the interviewer is looking for
you to gure out the algorithm and code it yourself.

The theory version of this question is answered here: Jimmy Saade's answer to What
should I know from CLRS 3rd edition book if my aim is to get into Google? and so they
kind of go together in that what's listed in this answer is an implementation of the
concepts listed in the other.

35.8k Views 167 Upvotes

View 4 Other Answers to this Question

Answer Timeline

Jimmy Saade
software engineer at Facebook
Answered Jul 1, 2015
Following 2.1k

Upvoted 167 Downvote Comments 6+


Question added to the topic Programming Interviews by Anonymous

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-important-concepts-in-C-and-C++-that-should-be-learnt-and-understood-before-a-progra 2/3

You might also like