Topics: Data Structures, Algorithms, Key-Value Store, Caching
Location: Los Gatos, CA
Interview date: 2025-11-15
Got offer: False
Summary
Round 1: Technical Phone
Question: I was asked to implement an expiring key-value store.
Details
The prompt was to implement an expiring key-value store with a follow-up on how to delete expired keys.
My Approach:
I chose to use a hash map to store the key-value pairs along with their expiration timestamps.
For deleting expired keys, I proposed using a background thread to periodically scan the hash map and remove entries that have exceeded their expiration time.
Key Insights:
Consider using a priority queue to keep track of the expiration times for more efficient removal of expired keys.
Discuss potential race conditions and synchronization issues when multiple threads access the key-value store.