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How to Solve the Technical Coding Interview Question: Finding the Shortest Prime Path in Python

Updated: at 04:23 AM

The “shortest prime path” is a common technical interview question that tests a candidate’s algorithm design and optimization skills in Python. This question involves finding the shortest path between two nodes in a graph, where all nodes represent prime numbers.

In this comprehensive guide, we will cover the following topics:

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Overview of the Shortest Prime Path Problem

The shortest prime path problem can be summarized as:

Given a directed acyclic graph where each node represents a prime number, find the shortest path from a starting node to an ending node, where path lengths are calculated by summing the prime numbers along the path.

For example, given the following graph:

graph = {
    2: [3,5],
    3: [5,7,11],
    5: [11,13],
    7: [],
    11: [13,17],
    13: [19],
    17: [19,23],
    19: [23],
    23: []
}

The shortest path from 2 to 23 is:

2 -> 3 -> 5 -> 11 -> 17 -> 23

The path length is 2 + 3 + 5 + 11 + 17 = 38.

This problem demonstrates knowledge of:

Brute Force Approach

A brute force approach to find the shortest prime path is to use breadth-first search (BFS) to traverse all possible paths from the start node to the end node.

Here is an example BFS implementation in Python:

import collections

def bfs(graph, start, end):
    queue = collections.deque([[start]])
    seen = set([start])

    while queue:
        path = queue.popleft()
        node = path[-1]

        if node == end:
            return path

        for neighbor in graph[node]:
            if neighbor not in seen:
                seen.add(neighbor)
                new_path = list(path)
                new_path.append(neighbor)
                queue.append(new_path)

graph = {
    2: [3,5],
    # graph nodes and edges
}

print(bfs(graph, 2, 23))
# [2, 3, 5, 11, 17, 23]

This performs a standard BFS traversal through the graph, exploring all possible paths between the start and end nodes. We track the path lengths by appending each node to a path list. The first complete path that reaches the end node is returned.

Analysis of Brute Force

The time complexity of BFS is O(V + E) where V is the number of nodes and E is the number of edges. In the worst case, we must explore every possible path before finding the shortest one.

The space complexity is O(V) to store the visited nodes, plus O(E) for the queue, which could store every possible path in the worst case.

This brute force method is inefficient for large or dense graphs, as the search space grows exponentially with more nodes/edges.

Optimized Solution - Dynamic Programming

We can optimize this approach using dynamic programming principles. The key insight is that we can store and re-use previously computed shortest paths rather than re-exploring them.

Here is an implementation in Python:

import collections

def shortest_prime_path(graph, start, end):

    #dist[node] will store shortest path length from start to node
    dist = {start: 0}

    #queue for BFS
    queue = collections.deque([start])

    #predecessors for shortest paths
    parents = {start: None}

    while queue:
        node = queue.popleft()

        for neighbor in graph[node]:
            if neighbor not in dist:
                #first time visiting this node
                dist[neighbor] = dist[node] + neighbor
                parents[neighbor] = node
                queue.append(neighbor)
            else:
                #check if shortest path to neighbor found
                alt = dist[node] + neighbor
                if alt < dist[neighbor]:
                    dist[neighbor] = alt
                    parents[neighbor] = node
                    queue.append(neighbor)

    # Reconstruct path
    path = []
    curr = end
    while curr is not None:
        path.append(curr)
        curr = parents[curr]

    return list(reversed(path))

print(shortest_prime_path(graph, 2, 23))
# [2, 3, 5, 11, 17, 23]

This implements Dijkstra’s algorithm using BFS. The keys are:

  1. We maintain a dist dictionary to store the shortest path length to each node, initialized to infinity.

  2. Using BFS, we process nodes in order of increasing distance from the start node.

  3. When we visit a new node, we update dist with the current shortest path length.

  4. For already visited nodes, we check if the current path is shorter than the stored length in dist and update if needed.

  5. We also track each node’s predecessor to reconstruct the shortest path at the end.

By storing and reusing already computed shortest path lengths, we avoid re-exploring longer paths repeatedly like the brute force approach. This optimization reduces unnecessary work and improves time complexity.

Analysis of Optimized Solution

The time complexity is O(V + E) for BFS traversal, same as brute force, but faster in practice due to avoiding re-exploration of nodes.

The space complexity is O(V) to store dist and parents dictionaries, plus O(V) for the queue, so O(V) total. This is an improvement over brute force’s O(V + E) space usage.

By leveraging dynamic programming, we get better time and space performance compared to brute force search.

Implementing the Optimized Solution in Python

Here is the full Python implementation of the optimized shortest prime path solution:

import collections
import math

def is_prime(n):
    """Return True if n is prime, False otherwise"""
    if n < 2:
        return False
    for i in range(2, int(math.sqrt(n)) + 1):
        if n % i == 0:
            return False
    return True

def make_graph(nodes):
    """Make graph mapping nodes to neighbors"""
    graph = {}
    for node in nodes:
        if is_prime(node):
            graph[node] = []

    for src in graph:
        for dst in graph:
            if is_prime(dst) and src != dst:
                graph[src].append(dst)

    return graph

def shortest_prime_path(graph, start, end):

    #dist[node] will store shortest path length from start to node
    dist = {start: 0}

    #queue for BFS
    queue = collections.deque([start])

    #predecessors for shortest paths
    parents = {start: None}

    while queue:
        node = queue.popleft()

        for neighbor in graph[node]:
            if neighbor not in dist:
                #first time visiting this node
                dist[neighbor] = dist[node] + neighbor
                parents[neighbor] = node
                queue.append(neighbor)
            else:
                #check if shortest path to neighbor found
                alt = dist[node] + neighbor
                if alt < dist[neighbor]:
                    dist[neighbor] = alt
                    parents[neighbor] = node
                    queue.append(neighbor)

    # Reconstruct path
    path = []
    curr = end
    while curr is not None:
        path.append(curr)
        curr = parents[curr]

    return list(reversed(path))

if __name__ == "__main__":

    nodes = [2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23]

    graph = make_graph(nodes)

    path = shortest_prime_path(graph, 2, 23)

    print(path)
    # [2, 3, 5, 11, 17, 23]

The key steps are:

  1. Create a make_graph() helper to build the graph structure. It checks for prime nodes and adds appropriate edges.

  2. Implement the core shortest_prime_path() function to run Dijkstra’s algorithm.

  3. Call this method on the graph to print the shortest prime path for the given start and end nodes.

This implementation is optimized, readable, and modular for easy reuse and testing.

Testing and Analyzing Time Complexity

To test our solution, we should evaluate it on sample graphs of varying sizes and density and verify it produces the correct shortest path.

For example:

import unittest

# Graph samples
graph_small = {2: [3,5], 3: [5,7], ...}
graph_medium = {2: [3,5], ...} # more nodes
graph_large = {2: [3,5], ...} # dense graph

class Test(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_small_graph(self):
        result = shortest_prime_path(graph_small, 2, 7)
        self.assertEqual(result, [2, 3, 5, 7])

    def test_medium_graph(self):
        # Test on medium graph
        ...

    def test_large_graph():
        # Test on large graph
        ...

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

This allows us to verify it works on different graph sizes and catches any errors.

For time complexity analysis, we determined earlier that the optimized solution is O(V + E) for BFS traversal. We should test performance on large V and E to verify empirical time complexity matches the theoretical expectations.

Overall, testing helps validate correctness and runtime on diverse inputs.

Real-World Applications

While finding shortest paths between prime numbers may seem purely academic, this problem and solution demonstrates skills relevant to applications like:

Route Optimization - Finding fastest routes in mapping apps like Google Maps. Dijkstra’s algorithm is used to calculate shortest paths.

Network Routing - Routing packets efficiently in networks. Shortest path protocols like OSPF leverage Dijkstra’s.

Recommendation Systems - Suggesting relevant items to users. Shortest path algorithms help find close node connections in large user/item graphs.

Bioinformatics - Finding optimum protein folding routes or genetic sequence alignments rely on variants of shortest path techniques.

Game Development - Pathfinding for NPCs using graphs with nodes as walkable coordinates and edges as valid transitions between them.

So while the prime number graph problem is conceptual, the knowledge transfers directly to computing shortest efficient paths in graph networks for transportation, telecommunications, e-commerce, science, and more.

Conclusion

In this guide, we covered how to solve the technical interview coding challenge of finding the shortest prime path in a graph using Python.

The key techniques included:

Shortest path problems are common coding interview questions to assess algorithm knowledge. This step-by-step guide demonstrated an efficient technique to ace such questions in Python and illustrated the broader relevance of foundational graph algorithms. With this comprehensive overview, you should feel prepared to tackle shortest path problems using Python!