Python interview with a Facebook engineer: XML Parser

[magesRNTcute]

Interviewer needs to understand that O(1) is the Big O space complexity, as there is a limited amount of unique characters. He points to an example with 10, 000 characters, but what about 10 million? 10 billion? O(k) is technically correct but for Big O that's O(1).

[benalfred]

I really liked the second question. Really enjoying the latest interviews; thanks for sharing!

[EricStratton]

It was my understanding that any problem that uses a loop and stack could also be changed to use recursion. The interviewer in the case of problem 2 said no. I'd be interested to see if it is possible to do it via recursion (yes I tried, yes I failed).

[okigan]

Could someone comment on clarity of interviewers feedback/interaction - is that typical / less typical?