Rust Interview Questions TUI

A Terminal User Interface (TUI) application for practicing common coding interview questions in Rust. Each question includes extensive beginner-friendly comments explaining how to solve it from scratch, along with Rust-specific concepts and best practices.

Features

• Interactive TUI: Navigate questions with arrow keys, run them with Enter
• 20 Interview Questions across 4 categories:
  • Classic Problems (FizzBuzz, Fibonacci, Palindrome, Two Sum, Reverse String)
  • Data Structures (Linked List, Binary Tree, Stack, Queue, Valid Parentheses)
  • Algorithms (Binary Search, QuickSort, MergeSort, BFS, DFS)
  • String Manipulation (Anagram Check, Longest Substring, Common Prefix, Permutations, Group Anagrams)
• Educational Comments: Every question includes step-by-step explanations
• Live Execution: See the output of each algorithm immediately
• Full-Screen Results: Clean, readable output view

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70 or later (install from rustup.rs)

Installation & Running

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/davidcanhelp/rust-study.git
cd rust-study

# Build and run
cargo run

# Or build optimized release version
cargo build --release
./target/release/rust-interview-questions

Usage

Navigation

• ↑/↓ Arrow Keys: Navigate through the question menu
• Enter: Run the selected question
• ESC or B: Return to menu from results view
• Q: Quit the application

Menu View

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Rust Interview Questions                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Select a Question (↑/↓ to navigate, Enter to run, Q to quit) │
│                                                          │
│ >> 1. FizzBuzz - Classic programming challenge          │
│    2. Fibonacci - Generate Fibonacci sequence           │
│    3. Palindrome - Check if string is palindrome        │
│    ...                                                   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Results View

Each question runs and displays:

• The output of the algorithm
• Explanation of the approach
• Time and space complexity analysis

Project Structure

rust-study/
├── Cargo.toml                 # Project dependencies and metadata
├── README.md                  # This file
├── LICENSE                    # MIT License
└── src/
    ├── main.rs                # TUI event loop and terminal setup
    ├── app.rs                 # Application state management
    ├── ui.rs                  # UI rendering with ratatui
    └── questions/
        ├── mod.rs             # Question registry
        ├── classic.rs         # Classic interview questions
        ├── data_structures.rs # Data structure implementations
        ├── algorithms.rs      # Sorting and searching algorithms
        └── strings.rs         # String manipulation problems

Learning from the Code

For Beginners

Each question file includes:

1. Problem Statement: Clear description of what to solve
2. How to Solve from Scratch: Step-by-step approach
3. Rust Concepts: Explanation of language features used
4. Complexity Analysis: Time and space complexity
5. Working Implementation: Fully commented code

Key Rust Concepts Covered

• Ownership & Borrowing: Understanding &T, &mut T, and moved values
• Option & Result: Handling nullable values and errors
• Pattern Matching: Using match and if let
• Iterators: Powerful functional-style data processing
• Collections: Vec, HashMap, VecDeque
• Traits: Using and implementing traits
• Generics: Writing reusable code
• Box & Smart Pointers: Heap allocation and recursive types

Example: Reading the FizzBuzz Implementation

Open src/questions/classic.rs and find the run_fizzbuzz() function. You'll see:

// ============================================================================
// FIZZBUZZ
// ============================================================================
// PROBLEM: Print numbers from 1 to 100, but:
// - For multiples of 3, print "Fizz"
// - For multiples of 5, print "Buzz"
// - For multiples of both 3 and 5, print "FizzBuzz"
//
// HOW TO SOLVE FROM SCRATCH:
// 1. Loop through numbers 1 to 100
// 2. Check if divisible by both 3 and 5 first (order matters!)
// ...

Customization

Adding Your Own Questions

1. Open the appropriate file in src/questions/ (or create a new one)
2. Write your question function:

   fn run_my_question() -> String {
       let mut output = String::from("My Question:\n\n");
       // Your implementation here
       output
   }

3. Register it in the module's get_questions() function:

   Question::new("My Question", "Description", run_my_question)

Modifying the UI

• Edit src/ui.rs to change colors, layout, or styling
• Uses the ratatui library
• All UI rendering is in render_menu() and render_results()

Technologies Used

• ratatui: Terminal UI framework
• crossterm: Cross-platform terminal manipulation
• Rust Standard Library: Collections, iterators, and more

Learning Resources

After Using This Project

1. The Rust Book: doc.rust-lang.org/book
2. Rust by Example: doc.rust-lang.org/rust-by-example
3. Rustlings: Small exercises to learn Rust
4. LeetCode: Practice more interview questions

Algorithm Resources

• Time Complexity Cheat Sheet: bigocheatsheet.com
• VisuAlgo: Algorithm visualizations

Contributing

Feel free to:

• Add more interview questions
• Improve explanations
• Fix bugs or typos
• Enhance the UI

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Author

DavidCanHelp

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Happy Learning! 🦀

Remember: The best way to learn is by doing. Try implementing these algorithms yourself before looking at the code, then compare your solution with the provided implementation.