How do you search for a word on a character board using adjacent cells?
PICTURE THIS: HOW TO EXPLAIN IT
Simple meaning
Start DFS from every cell matching the first letter, marking visited in-path and backtracking.
WHY — Graphs instead of guessing?
Why interviewers care about Graphs:
question about Graphs.
trade-offs, and what you would actually do on a DSA project - not buzzwords.
Name the idea, why it exists, then one short example.
End with when you use it and one common pitfall.
STEPS — What happens step by step?
Before you speak the answer, walk the interviewer through these steps:
- 1Start DFS from every
cell matching the first letter, marking visited in-path and backtracking.
- 2Worst-case time is O(m*n*4^L)
for word length L
- 3space is O(L) for
the recursion.
- 4A trie of many
words shares prefixes and is the Word Search II follow-up.
- 5Common mistake
What juniors usually get wrong.
- 6Close
When you pick this over the alternative.
EXAMPLE — See it in action
Here's a short line you can speak, broken into clear beats:
Note: Adapt this scaffold to your own project — keep it under 60–90 seconds.
Key takeaway
Start DFS from every cell matching the first letter, marking visited in-path and backtracking. Worst-case time is O(m*n*4^L) for word length L