How do I approach Other / Miscellaneous interview questions?

Other / Miscellaneous questions require understanding of core concepts and practice. PracHub provides solutions with explanations to help you master other / miscellaneous interviews.

What difficulty level is this interview question?

This is a medium difficulty Other / Miscellaneous question, commonly asked during Technical Screen rounds at Uber.

What role is this question designed for?

This question is commonly asked for Software Engineer candidates at Uber during technical interviews.

Develop test plan and TDD for word search

Quick Overview

This question evaluates a candidate's competency in designing comprehensive test plans and test-driven development workflows for grid-based word search algorithms, covering edge-case identification, input normalization, path validity, and performance/stress considerations within software testing and algorithmic reasoning.

Design a Comprehensive Test Plan and TDD Workflow for Word-Search Functions

Context and Assumptions

We are testing two grid-based word search functions that operate on a 2D character grid. To make the task self-contained, assume the following interfaces and semantics:

Function A: existsFixedDirection(grid, word) -> bool
- Returns true if the word appears contiguously in a straight line along any of the 8 compass directions (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) without wrapping and without reusing cells beyond the contiguous straight-line traversal.
Function B: existsPathAnyDirection(grid, word) -> bool (or -> path if your design returns coordinates)
- Returns true if there exists a path spelling the word by moving step-by-step to any of the 8 neighboring cells per letter. Direction can change between steps. A cell cannot be reused within the same word instance (no revisits in one path). No wrapping beyond edges.
Inputs:
- grid: non-jagged 2D array/list of single-character strings.
- word: string (possibly empty or with repeated letters); normalization rules to be specified.

Task

Design a thorough test plan and a test-driven development workflow for both functions. Enumerate concrete test cases covering:

Empty grid
Empty word
Single-letter grid/word matches and mismatches
Straight-line matches in all eight directions
Attempts requiring direction changes (should fail under fixed-direction)
Diagonal-only matches
Boundary-crossing attempts
Words with repeated letters that tempt revisits
Multiple valid starting positions
Grids with no occurrence
Large inputs for performance and stack-depth concerns
Invalid/normalization inputs (if applicable)

Describe how you would structure unit, property-based, and stress tests, and define pass/fail criteria.

Quick Overview

Context and Assumptions

We are testing two grid-based word search functions that operate on a 2D character grid. To make the task self-contained, assume the following interfaces and semantics:

Function A: existsFixedDirection(grid, word) -> bool

Returns true if the word appears contiguously in a straight line along any of the 8 compass directions (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) without wrapping and without reusing cells beyond the contiguous straight-line traversal.

Function B: existsPathAnyDirection(grid, word) -> bool (or -> path if your design returns coordinates)

Returns true if there exists a path spelling the word by moving step-by-step to any of the 8 neighboring cells per letter. Direction can change between steps. A cell cannot be reused within the same word instance (no revisits in one path). No wrapping beyond edges.

Inputs:

grid: non-jagged 2D array/list of single-character strings.
word: string (possibly empty or with repeated letters); normalization rules to be specified.

Task

Design a thorough test plan and a test-driven development workflow for both functions. Enumerate concrete test cases covering:

Empty grid

Empty word

Single-letter grid/word matches and mismatches

Straight-line matches in all eight directions

Attempts requiring direction changes (should fail under fixed-direction)

Diagonal-only matches

Boundary-crossing attempts

Words with repeated letters that tempt revisits

Multiple valid starting positions

Grids with no occurrence

Large inputs for performance and stack-depth concerns

Invalid/normalization inputs (if applicable)

Describe how you would structure unit, property-based, and stress tests, and define pass/fail criteria.

Develop test plan and TDD for word search

Quick Overview

Design a Comprehensive Test Plan and TDD Workflow for Word-Search Functions

Context and Assumptions

Task

Solution

Submit Your Answer to Earn 20XP

Develop test plan and TDD for word search

Quick Overview

Design a Comprehensive Test Plan and TDD Workflow for Word-Search Functions

Context and Assumptions

Task

Solution

Submit Your Answer to Earn 20XP