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Design Patterns.

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01

What are Design Patterns and why are they important?

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Design patterns are reusable solutions to commonly occurring problems in software design. They represent best practices and proven solutions that have evolved over time. Design patterns are important because they:

  • Provide a common vocabulary for developers
  • Reduce development time by offering tested solutions
  • Improve code maintainability and readability
  • Promote loose coupling and high cohesion
  • Help avoid common design pitfalls

The concept was popularized by the "Gang of Four" (GoF) book which categorized 23 fundamental patterns into Creational, Structural, and Behavioral categories.

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02

What are the three main categories of Design Patterns?

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The three main categories are:

  1. Creational Patterns: Deal with object creation mechanisms, trying to create objects in a manner suitable to the situation (e.g., Singleton, Factory, Builder)

  2. Structural Patterns: Deal with object composition and relationships between entities (e.g., Adapter, Decorator, Facade)

  3. Behavioral Patterns: Focus on communication between objects and the assignment of responsibilities (e.g., Observer, Strategy, Command)

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03

Explain the Singleton Pattern and when you would use it.

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The Singleton pattern ensures that a class has only one instance and provides global access to that instance.

When to use:

  • Database connections
  • Logger instances
  • Configuration settings
  • Thread pools

Basic implementation:

public class Singleton {
    private static Singleton instance;
    
    private Singleton() {}
    
    public static synchronized Singleton getInstance() {
        if (instance == null) {
            instance = new Singleton();
        }
        return instance;
    }
}
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04

Explain the Factory Method Pattern.

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The Factory Method pattern creates objects without specifying their exact classes. It defines an interface for creating objects, but lets subclasses decide which class to instantiate.

Example:

interface Animal {
    void makeSound();
}

abstract class AnimalFactory {
    abstract Animal createAnimal();
}

class DogFactory extends AnimalFactory {
    Animal createAnimal() {
        return new Dog();
    }
}

Benefits:

  • Loose coupling between creator and concrete products
  • Easy to extend with new product types
  • Follows Open/Closed Principle
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05

Explain the Adapter Pattern with an example.

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The Adapter pattern allows incompatible interfaces to work together. It acts as a bridge between two incompatible interfaces.

Example:

// Existing interface
interface MediaPlayer {
    void play(String filename);
}

// Incompatible interface
interface AdvancedPlayer {
    void playVlc(String filename);
}

// Adapter
class MediaAdapter implements MediaPlayer {
    AdvancedPlayer advancedPlayer;
    
    public void play(String filename) {
        if (filename.endsWith(".vlc")) {
            advancedPlayer = new VlcPlayer();
            advancedPlayer.playVlc(filename);
        }
    }
}

Use cases:

  • Integrating third-party libraries
  • Working with legacy code
  • Making incompatible APIs work together
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06

Explain the Facade Pattern and its benefits.

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The Facade pattern provides a simplified interface to a complex subsystem. It hides the complexity of the system and provides an easier interface for clients.

Benefits:

  • Simplifies client interaction
  • Reduces dependencies on internal classes
  • Promotes loose coupling
  • Makes the subsystem easier to use

Example:
A computer facade that hides the complexity of starting CPU, memory, hard drive, etc., and provides a simple start() method.

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07

Explain the Observer Pattern.

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08

What is the Strategy Pattern and when would you use it?

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09

Explain the Iterator Pattern.

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Intermediate 28
10

Explain the difference between a Design Pattern and an Algorithm.

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11

What is the difference between Composition and Inheritance in the context of Design Patterns?

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12

What are the problems with the Singleton Pattern?

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13

How would you implement a thread-safe Singleton?

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14

What's the difference between Factory Method and Abstract Factory patterns?

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15

Explain the Builder Pattern and when it's useful.

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16

What is the Prototype Pattern and when would you use it?

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17

What is the Decorator Pattern and how does it work?

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18

What is the difference between Adapter and Facade patterns?

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19

Explain the Composite Pattern.

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20

What is the Proxy Pattern and what are its types?

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21

When would you choose Decorator over inheritance?

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22

Explain the Command Pattern.

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23

What is the difference between Strategy and State patterns?

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24

Explain the Template Method Pattern.

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25

What is the Chain of Responsibility Pattern?

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26

What is the Mediator Pattern?

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27

What is the Memento Pattern?

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28

How do Design Patterns relate to SOLID principles?

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29

What are Anti-patterns? Give some examples.

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30

When should you NOT use Design Patterns?

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31

Explain the MVC pattern and how it relates to other patterns.

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32

What is Dependency Injection and how does it relate to Design Patterns?

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33

How do you document and communicate Design Patterns in a team?

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34

What is the difference between patterns and frameworks?

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35

How do you test code that uses Design Patterns?

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36

What is the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern?

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37

How do Design Patterns help with code maintainability?

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Expert 8
38

Explain the Visitor Pattern and when it's useful.

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39

How do you choose between similar patterns?

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40

How do Design Patterns apply in modern frameworks?

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41

What are the performance implications of Design Patterns?

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42

How do you refactor existing code to use Design Patterns?

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43

What are some emerging patterns in modern software development?

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44

What are some domain-specific Design Patterns?

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45

How do you balance between using patterns and keeping code simple?

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