Communication Strategies

Clarifying Questions

Always ask before coding. Shows thoroughness, prevents wrong solution. Standard questions:

1. Constraints: Input size range? Value range? Sorted? Distinct?
2. Edge cases: Empty input? Single element? Null? Negative numbers?
3. Output format: Return value? Print? Modify in place? New array?
4. Duplicates: How to handle? Return first/last/all?
5. Time/Space limits: Any specific requirements?
6. Multiple test cases: Single function or class with state?

Explaining Your Approach

Structure: (1) High-level idea. (2) Why it works (intuition). (3) Time/space complexity. (4) Walk through example. (5) Edge cases. (6) Code structure.

Handling Hints

Hints are gifts, not criticisms. Respond: 'That\'s a great hint, let me think...' Then re-evaluate. Don\'t ignore hints. If stuck: 'I\'m considering two approaches: X and Y. What do you think?' Shows reasoning.

Follow-up Questions

At end, ask: 'How would this scale to streaming data?', 'What if input is sorted?', 'Can we parallelize?', 'How to handle distributed?', 'Trade-offs between your approach and mine?' Shows systems thinking.

1. Ask about constraints upfront
2. Think aloud — narrate every decision
3. Start brute force, then optimize
4. Test with examples, including edge cases
5. State complexity clearly
6. Handle hints gracefully
7. Ask thoughtful follow-up questions