Build a Merkle Tree over a Directory with Hash Lookup and Tree Diff
Company: Cursor
Role: Software Engineer
Category: Software Engineering Fundamentals
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Technical Screen
Overview: Implement a Merkle tree over a real directory in Python, with N-ary directory nodes, a build method, a hash lookup by path, and a diff that compares two trees, and write the tests yourself. It tests deterministic hashing design, file-system traversal, pruning identical subtrees, and disciplined testing under time pressure.
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