Global Uniqueness Function | Dataford Interview Questions

Implement a 'global uniq' (deduplication) function/algorithm as a 90-minute onsite coding exercise.

Asked in the onsite stage. Candidate attempted an in-degree-tree-based approach, which they felt was not optimal; ultimately rejected.

Implement global_uniq(items). The input is a list of hashable values, and the output must contain each distinct value exactly once, ordered by its first appearance. Do not modify the input list.

Constraints

0 <= len(items) <= 5000
Every item is hashable
The input list must not be modified
Output order follows first appearance order

Function Signature

def global_uniq(items):

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