Apply operations efficiently using Command pattern
Company: Oracle
Role: Software Engineer
Category: Software Engineering Fundamentals
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Onsite
You are given an initial state and a list of operations that should be applied to it.
### Setup
- The state can be thought of as a mutable object (e.g., a document, a numeric value, an inventory map, or a configuration object).
- Each operation has a type and parameters (e.g., `Set(key, value)`, `Increment(key, delta)`, `Delete(key)`, etc.).
### Requirements
1. **Implement an operation executor** that applies all operations to produce the final state.
2. Use an object-oriented approach consistent with the **Command Pattern**:
- Each operation should be represented as a command with an `execute(state)` method (and optionally `undo(state)` if discussed).
3. **Optimize execution** when possible:
- Avoid naively applying every operation sequentially if there are opportunities to combine, cancel, reorder, or short-circuit operations **without changing the final result**.
### What to discuss
- Your command abstractions and how new operation types can be added.
- Correctness constraints for optimization (when reordering/merging is safe).
- Time/space complexity and edge cases (conflicting operations, no-ops).
Quick Answer: This question evaluates skills in object-oriented design, the Command Pattern, correctness reasoning, extensibility of operation abstractions, and optimization strategies for applying and combining operations on mutable state.