Implementing a Basic Search | Dataford Interview Questions

Taobao may receive product identifiers in an unsorted sequence from a batch request. Implement a linear search that returns the index of the first occurrence of a target product ID.

Formal Specification

Write find_product_id(product_ids, target).

product_ids is a list of integers.
target is an integer product ID.
Return the zero-based index of the first element equal to target.
Return -1 if target does not appear in the list.
The input list must not be modified.

Because the list is not guaranteed to be sorted, inspect elements from left to right and stop as soon as the target is found.

Constraints

1 <= len(product_ids) <= 10^5
0 <= product_ids[i] <= 10^9
0 <= target <= 10^9
product_ids may contain duplicate values
The list is not necessarily sorted

Function Signature

def find_product_id(product_ids, target):

Your question is Implementing a Basic Search. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.

Problem