Lists vs Dictionaries | Dataford Interview Questions

What are the differences of list and dictionary?

Asked in the Phone Interview stage, this question focuses on Python data structures. Implement compare_structures(items, mapping) to return a summary containing each structure's type, length, lookup complexity, and the dictionary keys whose values are dictionaries.

Input: items is a Python list, and mapping is a Python dictionary. Output: return a dictionary with keys list_type, dict_type, list_length, dict_length, list_lookup, dict_lookup, and nested_dictionary_keys.

Constraints

items is a valid Python list.
mapping is a valid Python dictionary.
Dictionary keys are hashable.
Nested dictionaries are detected only among the top-level dictionary values.
Preserve the insertion order of detected nested-dictionary keys.

Function Signature

def compare_structures(items, mapping):

Your question is Lists vs Dictionaries. 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

What are the differences of list and dictionary?

Constraints

items is a valid Python list.
mapping is a valid Python dictionary.
Dictionary keys are hashable.
Nested dictionaries are detected only among the top-level dictionary values.
Preserve the insertion order of detected nested-dictionary keys.

Function Signature

def compare_structures(items, mapping):

Your question is Lists vs Dictionaries. 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.