Adjacency List — DSA Technical Interview Questions & Answers

Adjacency List

Adjacency List

  • Adjacency List is a DSA topic. In plain words you use it for a short Adjacency List example in a short dry-run on paper. Don’t start with a slogan — start with that picture.
  • Smallest example: the smallest Adjacency List example you can type. Type it, run it, and say what you see. If you can do that from memory, you know Adjacency List.
  • From the example next to this theory: Adjacency List — graphs are often stored as adjacency lists: vertex → list of (neighbor, weight).
  • Trap: only saying “Adjacency List” with no example. Fix that before you talk about advanced DSA.
  • Viva: what is Adjacency List? Then show the smallest Adjacency List example you can type. Then name the trap.

Technical Interview Tip: What is Adjacency List? Show this: the smallest Adjacency List example you can type. Trap: only saying “Adjacency List” with no example.

Code Examples for Adjacency List

Adjacency List — working example

# adjacency list
graph = {
    "A": [("B", 2), ("C", 5)],
    "B": [("A", 2), ("C", 1)],
    "C": [("A", 5), ("B", 1)],
}
for u, edges in graph.items():
    print(u, "->", edges)

Adjacency List — graphs are often stored as adjacency lists: vertex → list of (neighbor, weight).

How to Explain Adjacency List to an Interviewer

What is Adjacency List?

Used for a short Adjacency List example a short dry-run on paper Not just the heading

Give one small example of Adjacency List.

the smallest Adjacency List example you can type Adjacency List — graphs are often stored as adjacency lists: vertex → list of (neighbor, weight)

What mistake do beginners make with Adjacency List?

only saying “Adjacency List” with no example Show the fix

Where do you use Adjacency List?

a short dry-run on paper a short Adjacency List example