Digital Specialist Engineer

Step 1: I first considered using a brute-force approach, where I checked every subarray to verify whether all elements were unique. This worked logically but was inefficient for larger inputs.

Step 2: I realized that I could optimize the solution using a sliding window technique along with a set to track unique elements.

Step 3: I used two pointers, expanding the window when elements were unique and shrinking it when duplicates were found. This significantly reduced the time complexity.

Step 4: After implementing this approach, I tested it with multiple inputs and edge cases, and the solution worked efficiently. The interviewer was satisfied with the optimized approach.

Step 1: I first thought of reversing the string and comparing it with the original string. However, I realized that special characters and uppercase letters needed to be handled.

Step 2: I cleaned the string by removing all non-alphanumeric characters and converting it to lowercase.

Step 3: Then I used a two-pointer approach, with one pointer at the start and one at the end, and compared characters while moving inward.

Step 4: This approach worked efficiently and reduced extra space usage. I tested it with different inputs, and the solution handled all cases correctly.

Step 1: I initially explained a simple linear search approach, where we traverse the array and compare each element with the target.

Step 2: The interviewer asked if I could optimize the solution since the array was already sorted.

Step 3: I then used the binary search approach and explained how dividing the search space into halves reduces the time complexity to O(log n).

Step 4: I wrote the code and dry-ran it on a few examples to confirm correctness, after which the interviewer was satisfied.