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Interview

Binary search variations that come up most in interviews

Khushi AroraKhushi Arora
8/4/2025
332

I noticed binary search is one of those topics where the basic concept is easy but variations can be tricky. Here are the ones I've encountered most:

  1. Search in rotated sorted array
  2. Find first/last occurrence
  3. Search in 2D matrix
  4. Minimum in rotated array
  5. Capacity to ship packages (binary search on answer)
  6. Koko eating bananas
  7. Split array largest sum

The "binary search on answer" pattern (#5-7) seems to be getting more popular. Anyone want to add more?


binary-searchpatternsinterview-prepdsa

Comments (1)

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Lakshay Desai
Lakshay Desai8/21/2025

Great list, Khushi! I've seen questions about 'peak element in an array' come up too. It's another interesting variation where binary search can be applied in a non-obvious way.