a5c-ai/interview-problem-bank

interview-problem-bank

A specialized skill for curating, organizing, and recommending coding interview problems, with support for company-specific preparation, pattern-based practice, and progress tracking.

Purpose

Provide a comprehensive interview problem bank with:

• Problems organized by FAANG company and difficulty
• Pattern-based categorization (Blind 75, NeetCode 150, etc.)
• Difficulty progression recommendations
• Coverage tracking and weak area identification
• Premium problem alternatives

Capabilities

Core Features

1. Problem Organization

   • By company (Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, etc.)
   • By pattern (Two Pointers, Sliding Window, DP, etc.)
   • By difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard)
   • By topic (Arrays, Trees, Graphs, etc.)
   • By frequency (most asked in interviews)

2. Curated Problem Lists

   • Blind 75 (essential problems)
   • NeetCode 150 (expanded essential list)
   • LeetCode Top Interview Questions
   • Company-specific top questions
   • Pattern-specific problem sets

3. Progress Tracking

   • Problems solved by category
   • Weak area identification
   • Time spent per problem type
   • Success rate tracking
   • Spaced repetition for review

4. Recommendations

   • Next problem based on progress
   • Problems to strengthen weak areas
   • Company-specific practice plans
   • Time-based study schedules

Problem Lists

Blind 75

The essential 75 problems covering all major patterns:

| Category | Count | Topics | |----------|-------|--------| | Arrays & Hashing | 9 | Two Sum, Group Anagrams, Top K Frequent | | Two Pointers | 5 | Valid Palindrome, 3Sum, Container with Water | | Sliding Window | 6 | Best Time to Buy Stock, Longest Substring | | Stack | 7 | Valid Parentheses, Min Stack, Daily Temperatures | | Binary Search | 7 | Search Rotated Array, Find Minimum | | Linked List | 11 | Reverse LL, Merge Lists, Detect Cycle | | Trees | 15 | Invert Tree, Max Depth, Level Order | | Tries | 3 | Implement Trie, Word Search II | | Heap/Priority Queue | 7 | Merge K Lists, Top K Frequent | | Backtracking | 9 | Subsets, Permutations, Combination Sum | | Graphs | 13 | Number of Islands, Clone Graph | | Dynamic Programming | 12 | Climbing Stairs, House Robber, Coin Change | | Greedy | 8 | Maximum Subarray, Jump Game | | Intervals | 6 | Merge Intervals, Meeting Rooms | | Math & Geometry | 8 | Rotate Image, Set Matrix Zeros | | Bit Manipulation | 7 | Single Number, Number of 1 Bits |

NeetCode 150

Extended list with 150 problems for comprehensive preparation:

• All 75 Blind 75 problems
• 75 additional problems for deeper coverage
• More advanced problems per category

Company-Specific Lists

| Company | Focus Areas | Top Patterns | |---------|-------------|--------------| | Google | Problem solving, optimization | Arrays, DP, Graphs | | Meta | Arrays, Trees, System Design | Binary Trees, Arrays | | Amazon | OOP, System Design, Leadership | Trees, BFS/DFS | | Apple | iOS/macOS, algorithms | Arrays, Trees | | Microsoft | Coding, System Design | DP, Arrays, Graphs | | Netflix | Distributed Systems | Graphs, DP |

Usage

Get Recommended Problems

# Get next problem based on progress
interview-problem-bank recommend --user progress.json

# Get problems for specific pattern
interview-problem-bank list --pattern "dynamic-programming" --difficulty medium

# Get company-specific problems
interview-problem-bank company --name google --count 50

Track Progress

# Mark problem as solved
interview-problem-bank solve --problem "two-sum" --time 15 --attempts 1

# Get progress report
interview-problem-bank progress --user progress.json

# Identify weak areas
interview-problem-bank analyze --user progress.json

Generate Study Plan

# Generate 4-week study plan
interview-problem-bank plan --weeks 4 --target google --level intermediate

# Generate daily practice set
interview-problem-bank daily --count 3 --user progress.json

Output Schema

Problem Entry

{
  "id": "two-sum",
  "title": "Two Sum",
  "difficulty": "Easy",
  "patterns": ["Arrays", "Hash Table"],
  "companies": ["Google", "Amazon", "Meta", "Apple", "Microsoft"],
  "frequency": 95,
  "url": "https://leetcode.com/problems/two-sum/",
  "premiumAlternative": null,
  "hints": [
    "Use a hash table for O(1) lookup",
    "Store complement as key, index as value"
  ],
  "timeToSolve": {
    "target": 10,
    "beginner": 20,
    "expert": 5
  },
  "relatedProblems": ["3sum", "4sum", "two-sum-ii"]
}

Progress Report

{
  "user": "user123",
  "totalSolved": 150,
  "byDifficulty": {
    "Easy": 50,
    "Medium": 80,
    "Hard": 20
  },
  "byPattern": {
    "Arrays": { "solved": 25, "total": 30 },
    "DP": { "solved": 15, "total": 25 },
    "Graphs": { "solved": 10, "total": 20 }
  },
  "weakAreas": ["Graphs", "Advanced DP", "Tries"],
  "recommendations": [
    { "problem": "course-schedule", "reason": "Strengthen Graphs" },
    { "problem": "word-break", "reason": "Practice DP" }
  ],
  "streak": 15,
  "lastPracticed": "2025-01-24"
}

Study Plan

{
  "duration": "4 weeks",
  "target": "Google",
  "level": "intermediate",
  "schedule": [
    {
      "week": 1,
      "focus": ["Arrays", "Strings", "Two Pointers"],
      "problems": [
        { "day": 1, "problems": ["two-sum", "valid-anagram", "contains-duplicate"] },
        { "day": 2, "problems": ["best-time-to-buy", "max-subarray", "product-except-self"] }
      ]
    },
    {
      "week": 2,
      "focus": ["Sliding Window", "Stack", "Binary Search"],
      "problems": [...]
    }
  ]
}

Pattern-Based Organization

Array Patterns

| Pattern | Key Problems | Technique | |---------|--------------|-----------| | Two Pointers | 3Sum, Container with Water | Converging pointers | | Sliding Window | Longest Substring, Min Window | Expand/contract window | | Prefix Sum | Subarray Sum Equals K | Cumulative sum | | Kadane's | Maximum Subarray | Track max ending at i |

Tree Patterns

| Pattern | Key Problems | Technique | |---------|--------------|-----------| | DFS Recursive | Max Depth, Path Sum | Recursion | | BFS Level Order | Level Order Traversal | Queue | | Construct Tree | Build from Preorder/Inorder | Divide and conquer |

Graph Patterns

| Pattern | Key Problems | Technique | |---------|--------------|-----------| | BFS Shortest Path | Word Ladder | Level-by-level | | DFS Connected Components | Number of Islands | Visit all nodes | | Topological Sort | Course Schedule | Kahn's algorithm | | Union Find | Number of Connected | DSU |

DP Patterns

| Pattern | Key Problems | Technique | |---------|--------------|-----------| | 1D Linear | House Robber, Climbing Stairs | dp[i] depends on dp[i-1], dp[i-2] | | 2D Grid | Unique Paths, Min Path Sum | dp[i][j] from neighbors | | String DP | Edit Distance, LCS | dp[i][j] for substrings | | Knapsack | Coin Change, Partition | Include/exclude item |

Integration Options

MCP Server

InterviewReady MCP Server:

# Access curated interview content
npm install -g interviewready-mcp-server

External Resources

• Tech Interview Handbook
• Coding Interview University
• FAANG Coding Interview Questions
• neerazz/FAANG
• Interviews (kdn251)

Integration with Processes

This skill enhances:

• faang-interview-prep - Structured FAANG preparation
• mock-coding-interview - Problem selection for mocks
• interview-problem-explanation - Explaining solutions
• skill-gap-analysis - Identifying weak areas

Interview Preparation Timeline

1 Week Preparation

Focus on high-frequency problems:

• Day 1-2: Arrays and Strings (15 problems)
• Day 3-4: Trees and Graphs (10 problems)
• Day 5-6: DP and Backtracking (10 problems)
• Day 7: Review and mock interview

1 Month Preparation

Comprehensive coverage:

• Week 1: Fundamentals (Arrays, Strings, Hash Tables)
• Week 2: Data Structures (Trees, Graphs, Heaps)
• Week 3: Algorithms (DP, Backtracking, Greedy)
• Week 4: Review, mock interviews, weak areas

3 Month Preparation

Deep mastery:

• Month 1: All Easy + Medium fundamentals
• Month 2: Advanced Medium + Hard problems
• Month 3: Company-specific + mock interviews

References

• Blind 75 List
• NeetCode
• Sean Prashad's LeetCode Patterns
• Tech Interview Handbook
• InterviewReady MCP

Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Resolution | |-------|-------|------------| | PROBLEM_NOT_FOUND | Problem not in database | Search by alternate name | | PREMIUM_LOCKED | LeetCode premium required | Use alternative problem | | INVALID_COMPANY | Company not recognized | Check supported companies | | PROGRESS_LOAD_FAILED | Cannot load progress file | Initialize new progress |

Best Practices

1. Quality over quantity - Understand solutions deeply
2. Pattern recognition - Group problems by pattern
3. Time yourself - Practice under interview conditions
4. Review regularly - Spaced repetition helps retention
5. Mock interviews - Practice explaining solutions
6. Company research - Focus on company-specific patterns