Find Words in Grid
Reported by candidates from Cisco's online assessment. Pattern, common pitfall, and the honest play if you blank under the timer.
Cisco sent you 'Find Words in Grid' in August 2024, and you've got hours to prepare. This is a breadth-first-search problem disguised as a word puzzle. You need to navigate a 2D grid, searching for target words by moving through adjacent cells. The trick is that adjacency rules and backtracking constraints matter more than raw BFS speed. If you blank during the OA, StealthCoder reads the grid layout and word list on your screen and feeds you the traversal pattern in real time.
Pattern and pitfall
The core pattern is BFS: start at each cell, explore neighbors (typically up, down, left, right, and sometimes diagonals), and build paths that match target words. The gotcha is usually one of these: can you revisit cells within a single word search (probably not), how do you handle multiple words efficiently, and what counts as a valid neighbor. Most candidates write a DFS first, realize it's slow on large grids, and rewrite as BFS. Don't make that mistake live. Code BFS from the start: queue up cells, track visited state per-word-search, and match characters as you go. StealthCoder is your safety net if the grid traversal logic breaks mid-assessment.
If you see this problem in your OA tomorrow, the play is to recognize the pattern in 30 seconds. StealthCoder buys you that recognition.
You can drill Find Words in Grid cold, or you can hedge it. StealthCoder runs invisibly during screen share and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. The proctor sees the IDE. They don't see what's behind it. Built by an Amazon engineer who passed his OA cold and still thinks the filter is broken.
Get StealthCoderRelated leaked OAs
This OA pattern shows up on LeetCode as word search ii. If you have time before the OA, drill that.
You've seen the question.
Make sure you actually pass Cisco's OA.
Cisco reuses patterns across OAs. Built by an Amazon engineer who passed his OA cold and still thinks the filter is broken. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Find Words in Grid FAQ
Can you reuse a cell when searching for the same word?+
Almost never. Each word search typically marks visited cells for that specific search only. Reset the visited set when you start a new word. This is a common off-by-one bug that costs points.
Should I precompute adjacency or compute on the fly?+
Compute on the fly. It's cleaner and avoids memory overhead. Check bounds and direction offsets (up, down, left, right) inside your BFS loop.
Is this problem asking for all occurrences or just existence?+
The problem title suggests existence or coordinate return. Read the output format carefully. If it's 'true/false per word', you only need one match. If it's coordinates, return all start points.
How hard is Cisco's version compared to standard BFS problems?+
Medium. BFS logic is straightforward, but the grid constraints and word matching add friction. You won't need advanced algorithms, just clean boundary handling and state management.
What's the fastest way to code this in 15 minutes?+
Write a nested loop for each cell, then BFS from that cell using a queue. Match characters as you pop cells. Print matches immediately. Avoid fancy optimizations. Correctness beats speed here.