Explain data structure fundamentals
Company: Citi
Role: Software Engineer
Category: Coding & Algorithms
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Onsite
Overview: This question evaluates understanding of data structure fundamentals, specifically hash map internals (hashing, collision resolution strategies, load factor, and resizing), time complexity analysis for search/insert/delete, contrasts between arrays and linked lists for random access and insertion, and typical use cases and complexities for stacks versus queues. It is commonly asked in technical interviews to assess algorithmic thinking and the ability to reason about performance trade-offs and appropriate data structure selection; domain: Coding & Algorithms; level: tests both conceptual understanding and practical application.