Exhaustive Search — AI Technical Interview Questions & Answers

Exhaustive Search

Exhaustive Search

  • Exhaustive Search is a search strategy. Say the data structure, whether it uses a heuristic, and if it guarantees a shortest path. Draw a tiny 6-node graph. That is the exam, not a textbook proof.
  • Exhaustive Search — output: three exam lines. Graph on paper first.
  • For Exhaustive Search: always mark visited nodes or you loop. Say complexity in plain words: time vs memory trade-off.
  start
    ├── BFS  queue
    ├── DFS  stack
    └── A*   g+h
    │
    ▼
   goal

Technical Interview Tip: DS + heuristic yes/no + optimality.

Code Examples for Exhaustive Search

Example

# Exhaustive Search
print("draw 6 nodes")
print("name the DS: queue / stack / priority")
print("say if the path is optimal")

Exhaustive Search — output: three exam lines. Graph on paper first.

How to Explain Exhaustive Search to an Interviewer

Explain Exhaustive Search as if you are teaching a junior — definition, then one example.

Exhaustive Search — how we walk the state graph. Exhaustive Search — visited set.

What does the example print, and what does that prove?

Exhaustive Search — output: three exam lines

What mistake do freshers make with Exhaustive Search?

Exhaustive Search — heuristic or not?