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Edge Case Handling and Debugging Questions

Covers the systematic identification, analysis, and mitigation of edge cases and failures across code and user flows. Topics include methodically enumerating boundary conditions and unusual inputs such as empty inputs, single elements, large inputs, duplicates, negative numbers, integer overflow, circular structures, and null values; writing defensive code with input validation, null checks, and guard clauses; designing and handling error states including network timeouts, permission denials, and form validation failures; creating clear actionable error messages and informative empty states for users; methodical debugging techniques to trace logic errors, reproduce failing cases, and fix root causes; and testing strategies to validate robustness before submission. Also includes communicating edge case reasoning to interviewers and demonstrating a structured troubleshooting process.

HardTechnical
0 practiced
In C++, describe practical defensive strategies to avoid integer overflow and undefined behavior in performance-critical code: checked arithmetic, compiler sanitizers, using wider types for intermediate results, and design-time contracts. Provide code examples and discuss the trade-offs between runtime checks and performance.
HardTechnical
0 practiced
Describe strategies to test and debug behavior driven by externalized configuration: missing keys, incorrect types, live reload, secrets rotation, and mixed-version deployments. Include automated tests, canary rollout strategies, safe defaults, and how to handle secrets securely in CI while enabling meaningful tests.
HardTechnical
0 practiced
Explain how integer arithmetic semantics in JavaScript differ from languages with fixed-width integers and how this affects edge-case handling for crypto, hashing, and binary protocol code in Node.js. Provide defensive strategies (e.g., BigInt, Buffer arithmetic) to avoid precision and overflow bugs.
EasyTechnical
0 practiced
Implement a Java method 'parseIntSafe(String s)' that parses a string into a 32-bit signed integer. Requirements: reject null and empty strings, allow optional leading '+' or '-' only, reject strings with spaces, detect overflow and throw a custom exception, and include JUnit tests covering edge values like "2147483647", "-2147483648", and overflow cases.
MediumSystem Design
0 practiced
Design an observability strategy for a microservice to make debugging edge cases easier. Requirements: structured logs, correlation IDs across services, traces for distributed requests, low-overhead sampling policy, standardized error fields, and retention/alerting policy that balances cost with usefulness. Outline log fields, metrics, and tracing spans.

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